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SOUTHERN    BRANCH 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
LISRA.RY 

LOS   ANGELES,  CALIF. 


<1 


Childhood  is  the  basis  of  the  future,  and  I  believe 
in  religious  instruction  for  American  children.  The 
future  of  the  nation  cannot  be  trusted  to  the  children 
unless  their  education  includes  their  spiritual  develop- 
ment. It  is  time,  therefore,  that  we  give  our  attention 
to  the  religious  instruction  of  the  children  of  America, 
not  in  the  spirit  of  intolerance,  nor  to  emphasize  dis- 
tinctions or  controversy  between  creeds  or  beliefs,  but 
to  extend  religious  teaching  to  all  in  such  form  that 
conscience  is  developed  and  duty  to  one's  neighbor 
and  to  God  is  understood  and  fulfilled. 

Warren  G.  Harding, 

President  of  the  United  States. 


Cf)e  !Sbtngbon  Beligtou£(  (Cbucatton  (Eexts; 
Babtb  &.  Bobinep.  General  €bitor 

GEORGE  HERBERT  BEITS.  Associate  Editor 


The  New  Program  of 
Religious  Education 

BY 

GEORGE  HERBERT  BETTS 


47520 

THE  ABINGDON  PRESS 

NEW  YORK       CINCINNATI 


Copyright,  1921,  by 

GEORGE  HERBERT  BETTS 

All  Rights  Reserved 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 


First  Edition  Printed  October,  I93i 
Reprinted  January  and  March,  1933 


CONTENTS 

chapter  page 

Foreword 9 

I.    Changing  Concepts 11 

What  shall  the  church  do  to  be  saved? — Saving  the 
body  and  saving  the  soul — No  saved  church  in  a  lost 
world — Practical  temper  of  the  times:  New  standards  of 
efficiency  in  social  institutions — New  demands  upon 
the  church — The  church  cannot  escape  evaluation — 
Tests  to  be  applied  to  the  church:  Results  which  cannot 
be  measured — The  test  of  clear  aims — The  test  of  the 
influence  exerted  by  the  church — The  test  of  right 
methods — A  pressing  question:  The  church  facing  the 
test — Issues  at  stake, 

II.    Conflicting  Currents 22 

Conflict  of  opinion  usually  not  to  be  deplored — 
Conflict  may  block  action — The  conservative  and  the 
progressive — Religious  education  and  evangelism — 
The  viewpoint  of  religious  education:  Work  upon 
childhood  the  most  fruitful  enterprise  of  the  church — 
Conservation,  with  reclamation  a  last  resort — Reli- 
gion can  be  taught — The  demands  of  religious  educa- 
tion— The  evangelistic  viewpoint:  Fear  that  religious 
education  will  substitute  training  for  divine  influence 
— Conversion  as  the  aim  of  church  activity — Con- 
trasting the  two  points  of  view:  Detailed  parallel  com- 
parison of  respective  claims — Conclusion. 

III.    What  Is  Religious  Education 33 

Difficulties  arising  out  of  failure  to  define  education 
and  religion — Changing  concepts  of  education:  Changes 
in  meaning  undergone  by  this  term — Fading  of  the 
disciplinary  from  the  concept  of  education — The  mod- 
em meaning  of  education — This  concept  applied  to 

5 


NEW  PROGRAM  OF  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

religious  education — Changing  concepts  of  religion: 
Religion  becoming  more  of  a  djmamic  function  in  life 
— New  meanings  attached  to  religious  faith  and  be- 
lief— The  increasingly  social  nature  of  religion — Re- 
ligion applying  to  the  whole  life — The  meaning  of 
religious  education:  What  rehgious  education  does  not 
seek  to  do — ^What  it  does  seek  to  do — Not  a  panacea. 

IV.    Religion  Through  Education 42 

The  world-wide  renaissance  in  education — Social 
meaning  of  this  renaissance — The  principle  applied  to 
religious  education — The  testimony  of  personal  expe- 
rience: This  shows  a  large  proportion  of  active  Chris- 
tians have  never  known  conscious  separation  from 
God — The  meaning  of  conversion  in  rehgious  expe- 
rience— Religious  experience  without  reclamatory  con- 
version— The  testimony  of  psychology:  The  concepts  of 
"original  nature"  and  "original  sin" — Original  reli- 
gious status  of  the  child — The  bearing  of  this  position 
on  religious  education — How  to  make  religion  a  nor- 
mal part  of  growth  and  experience — The  testimony  of 
the  church  itself:  The  church  has  made  the  Sunday 
school  more  an  evangelistic  than  an  educational 
agency — Yet  the  church  has  been  most  successful 
when  it  has  stressed  its  teaching  function — Churches 
of  the  present  which  use  the  educational  method — 
Conclusions. 

V.    Religion  Through  Evangelism 54 

Differences  in  the  presuppositions  of  the  evan- 
gelistic and  the  educational  method — How  the  church 
came  by  the  evangelistic  method:  The  Protestant  Church 
and  its  earlier  problem — The  reclamation  of  the  spirit- 
ually dead  through  evangelistic  agencies — This  prin- 
ciple mistakenly  applied  to  childhood — The  evangelistic 
concept  prior  to  the  "discovery"  of  the  child  and  of 
education — Appeal  of  the  evangelistic  method  to  the 
imagination — The  educational  method  less  sensational 
— The  evangelistic  the  cheaper  and  easier  way  if  it 
produced  the  same  results — The  evangelistic  method  has 
6 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

an  important  place:  At  best  many  will  be  missed  by 
the  educational  method — Some  will  fail  to  respond — 
The  church  must  therefore  continue  a  strong  program 
of  reclamation — Results  of  the  evangelistic  program: 
Evangelism  without  education  results  in  an  untrained 
church  constituency — The  tendency  of  the  reclaimed 
to  "fall  from  grace" — The  church  should  educate  its 
converts  not  less  than  its  children. 

VI.    The  Church's  Neglect  of  Religious  Education  . .    63 

Has  the  Protestant  Church  taken  religious  education 
seriously — How  the  Sunday  school  came  to  tfie  church: 
The  Sunday  school  first  forced  upon  the  church — 
Robert  Raikes  and  the  English  Sunday  school — The 
introduction  of  the  Sunday  school  into  American 
churches — Religious  education  looked  upon  as  inci- 
dental: Comparative  stress  upon  religious  education 
and  other  church  enterprises — The  church  does  not 
train  its  ministry  for  educational  functions — The 
church  neglects  religious  education  in  its  budget — 
Religious  education  in  church  colleges:  Church  founded 
colleges  predominate  in  the  United  States — These 
colleges  to  train  leaders  for  the  church — Yet  religion 
has  a  small  place  in  the  college  curriculum. 

VII.    If  the  Church   Should   Adopt  an    Educational 

Program   73 

Changes  required  if  the  church  would  make  religious 
education  a  primary  enterprise — An  educational  lead' 
ership:  The  present  leadership  of  the  church  not 
trained  for  educational  functions — Preaching  rather 
than  teaching  to  dominate  as  a  church  ideal — A  new 
emphasis  in  the  training  of  its  ministry:  Most  churches 
of  the  present  served  by  one  minister  only — Religious 
education  deserves  a  prominent  place  in  the  minis- 
ter's training — Theological  schools  most  favorably 
situated  in  connection  with  universities — A  ministry 
of  education:  A  new  professional  field  opening — The 
ministry  of  education    subordinated   to  one    in   the 

7 


NEW  PROGRAM  OF  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

church — Change  of  emphasis  in  church  program:  Stand- 
ards by  which  to  estimate  value  placed  on  its  enter- 
prises by  the  church — Where  does  the  church  rank 
religious  education — Where  should  it  rank  it — A 
redistribution  of  the  church's  budget:  How  the  church 
spends  its  money — What  should  the  church  devote  to 
religious  education — Apply  educational  standards  to 
the  church  school:  Present  standards  not  educational 
— How  to  introduce  educational  standards — Points  at 
which  these  standards  will  apply. 

VIII.    The  New  Program 89 

A  new  program  is  developing — Directions  which 
this  new  program  will  take — Making  the  Sunday 
school  a  children's  church:  The  children's  church  a 
teaching  church — Program  of  the  children's  church — 
Saving  the  leakage  between  the  Sunday  school  and 
the  church — The  vacation  church  day  school:  Origin  of 
the  vacation  school  movement — Present  lack  of  stand- 
ards— Principles  which  should  apply — The  week-day 
church  school:  The  modem  origin  of  the  week-day 
chm"ch  school — The  Catholic  and  the  Jewish  stress 
upon  week-day  religious  instruction — Early  American 
public  schools  and  the  religious  element  in  the  curri- 
culum— The  secularization  of  the  public  school — 
Principles  which  determine  the  amount  of  time  to  be 
given  any  subject — The  religious  factor  suffers  from 
lack  of  time — Religious  instruction  to  be  kept  out  of 
the  public  school — The  teacher  training  school:  Com- 
parison of  public  school  and  church  school  teaching 
force — Need  of  church  school  teachers  for  more  active 
training — Practical  plans — The  home:  Educatiomil 
responsibilities  assumed  by  the  old-time  home — 
Change  in  the  attitude  of  the  home — No  program  of 
religious  education  complete  without  the  home  doing 
its  part — How  the  church  can  bring  the  home  into 
the  program. 

A  Selected  Bibliography 104 

Religious  Education  Posters 107 

8 


FOREWORD 

This  little  volume  is  an  attempt  to  define  the  aims  of 
religious  education  and  show  its  place  in  the  scheme  of 
the  church's  activities. 

In  every  new  movement  there  is  a  time  of  indifference 
followed  by  a  period  of  misunderstanding,  confusion  of 
thought,  working  at  cross  purposes;  then  acceptance.  On 
the  matter  of  religious  education  the  Protestant  Church 
is  just  now  passing  over  from  the  first  of  these  stages  to 
the  second ;  indifference  and  complacency  are  giving  way 
to  interest  and  concern,  yet  the  new  program  is  far  from 
practical  realization  or  even  full  approval.  Much  conflict 
of  opinion  and  uncertainty  still  exists. 

Some  see  in  the  movement  for  religious  education  the 
dawn  of  the  millennium,  others  think  it  a  valuable 
adjunct  to  the  church's  present  program,  while  still  others 
are  frankly  skeptical  over  the  whole  project.  The  new 
term  "religious  education"  means  very  different  things 
to  different  people  who  use  it.  To  some  it  is  an  effective 
tool  for  evangelism;  to  others  it  is  a  means  of  escape 
from  necessity  for  the  evangelistic  method.  Not  a  few 
see  in  this  movement  a  great  new  social  and  spiritual 
force;  but  many  say  it  is  another  fad  and  will  soon  be 
heard  no  more. 

These  and  similar  questions  are  discussed  in  the  present 
volume  from  the  point  of  view  of  one  who  frankly  be- 
lieves in  the  possibilities  of  religious  education  when  that 
term  is  rightly  conceived.  The  changing  concepts  as  to 
the  function  of  the  church  are  noted;  the  causes  under- 
lying the  conflicting  currents  of  opinion  concerning  the 

9 


NEW  PROGRAM   OF  RELIGIOUS   EDUCATION 

place  of  religious  education  are  analyzed ;  religious  educa- 
tion is  itself  defined;  the  interrelations  of  the  educational 
and  the  evangelistic  method  are  set  forth ;  an  explanation 
is  sought  for  the  church's  relative  neglect  of  religious 
education;  changes  which  would  follow  a  full  acceptance 
of  religious  education  as  a  major  enterprise  are  outlined; 
and  a  sketch  is  made  of  the  program  required  to  make 
religious  education  fulfill  its  purpose  in  the  modem 
church. 

It  should  be  understood  that  the  positions  taken,  while 
presented  with  deep  conviction,  are  intended  rather  to 
open  than  to  close  the  discussion.  The  writer  believes 
that  the  topics  considered  are  among  the  most  vital  and 
crucial  confronting  the  Christian  Church  to-day.  In  his 
presentation  he  hopes  to  bring  these  problems  anew  to 
the  studious  attention  of  church  leaders  whatever  their 
denomination,  position,  or  authority,  to  the  end  that  the 
church  may  effectively  place  the  religious  education  of 
youth  at  the  forefront  of  its  enterprises. 


lO 


CHAPTER  I 

CHANGING  CONCEPTS 

What  shall  the  church  do  to  be  saved?  This  is  not 
mere  sensationalism.  The  startling  question  is  gravely 
being  asked  by  serious  men  to  whom  the  life  of  the  church 
means  more  than  life  itself.  What!  Bluntly  ask  such  a 
question  of  an  institution  whose  avowed  business  it  is  to 
save  others?  Throw  it  like  a  bludgeon  at  an  organization 
that  has  outlived  oppression  and  tyranny  and  to-day 
numbers  its  adherents  in  hundreds  of  millions? 

Let  us  get  this  straight.  No  intelligent  person  believes 
that  the  Christian  Church  is  in  the  least  danger  of  going 
out  of  existence  as  an  institution.  Its  corporate  Kfe  is 
entirely  secure,  for  as  long  as  civilized  men  maintain  an 
organized  society  so  long  will  they  have  an  organized 
religion,  that  is,  a  church.  The  question  goes  much 
deeper  than  this.  It  turns  on  the  kind  of  church  we  shall 
have. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  in  Jean  Valjean's  dream 
when  he  was  fighting  a  great  moral  battle  with  himself 
one  called  out  to  him,  "Jean  Valjean,  you  are  dead." 
"I  am  not  dead,  I  am  alive,"  he  answered.  "No,  you  are 
dead;  you  have  killed  your  souU"  came  back  the  reply. 

Not  the  body  of  the  church,  but  its  soul  is  in  danger. 
What  shall  the  church  do  to  save  its  soul,  its  spiritual 
dynamic,  its  constructive  influence  for  righteousness 
which  alone  gives  it  the  right  or  the  power  to  assume 
moral  leadership  among  social  institutions  and  to  claim 
the  respect  of  men?  What  shall  the  church  do  to  save 
the  self-respect  which  comes  only  from  the  consciousness 

II 


NEW   PROGRAM  OF  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION 

of  the  fulfillment  of  obligation  and  the  realization  of 
destiny?  What  part  will  it  play  in  the  reorganization  of 
human  values  now  going  on?  Will  it  be  able  to  take  the 
offensive  in  the  struggle  against  selfishness,  greed,  and 
the  many  forms  of  iniquity  that  have  gained  sway,  or 
wiU  its  fight  be  a  defensive  one,  satisfied  with  victories 
already  won  and  with  ground  already  gained?  Will  the 
church  aggressively  face  forward  and  outward  ready  to 
meet  new  times  and  conditions,  or  will  it  turn  its  gaze 
inward  and  backward  in  enervating  contemplation  of  its 
glory  and  traditions?  These  are  the  questions  that  many 
earnest  souls  are  to-day  anxiously  asking. 

Those  who  mocked  said,  "He  saved  others,  Wmself  he 
cannot  save."  Like  its  Founder,  the  church  cannot  save 
itself  except  through  saving  others.  It  is  unthinkable  that 
a  church  can  save  itself  in  a  lost  world.  For  a  church 
exists  only  to  serve,  and  when  effective  service  ceases  the 
church  no  longer  lives;  its  soul  is  dead.  Only  as  it  goes 
out  into  the  world  of  men  and  affairs,  out  where  the  tides 
of  life  are  strong  and  where  evil  abounds,  out  where 
human  need  is  greatest,  and  there  sets  a  lamp  to  the  feet 
that  go  astray  and  throws  a  light  upon  the  pathway  that 
leads  to  a  sure  goal  can  the  church  be  saved.  Nor  perhaps 
does  it  greatly  matter  whether  a  church  that  would  not 
be  willing  and  able  to  do  these  things  should  be  saved 
or  not. 

PRACTICAL  TEMPER  OF  THE  TIMES 

In  a  new  and  peculiar  sense  the  church  is  to-day  on 
trial  at  the  bar  of  social  judgment  in  the  Christian  world. 
While  it  is  no  longer  unjustly  held  responsible  for  not 
having  prevented  the  war,  it  is  rightly  held  to  account 
for  taking  a  leading  part  in  the  spiritual  regeneration  of 
a  disorganized  world.   This  is  a  large  contract,  and  the 

12 


CHANGING  CONCEPTS 

way  in  which  it  meets  this  challenge  will  go  far  to  de- 
termine the  place  the  church  is  to  occupy  among  social 
and  spiritual  forces  for  the  generations  that  lie  imme- 
diately ahead. 

It  will  not  do  to  answer  the  challenge  in  terms  of  past 
achievement.  That  the  church  has  many  glorious  pages 
(along  with  some  dark  ones)  in  its  history  all  who  know 
its  past  will  gladly  agree.  Nor  will  it  serve  to  appeal  to 
a  loyalty  founded  on  sentiment  alone.  For  the  temper  of 
these  times  is  preeminently  practical.  The  lessons  of  the 
past  half  dozen  years  have  taken  deep  hold  on  the  social 
mind.  We  demand  results.  We  seem  determined  to  quit 
guessing  or  assuming  all  along  the  line  and  go  to  finding 
out — finding  out  whether  results  are  commensurate  with 
claims  and  costs  in  every  social  institution. 

The  necessity  for  this  attitude  has  been  forcibly  thrust 
upon  us.  For  example,  we  recently  found  that  twenty- 
five  per  cent  of  our  young  men  were  disqualified  for 
effective  military  service  because  of  physical  disabilities; 
so  we  rightly  go  to  our  public-school  system  and  our 
national,  State,  and  municipal  health  authorities  and  ask 
them  what  is  the  matter  and  what  they  are  going  to  do 
about  it.  We  discover  that  we  have  eight  or  ten  million 
illiterate  Americans  among  our  population;  naturally,  we 
inquire  what  is  wrong  with  our  boasted  free,  universal, 
compulsory  education  and  what  remedy  it  proposes.  To 
our  astonishment  the  war  uncovers  a  considerable  block 
of  people  living  under  the  American  flag  and  receiving 
the  benefit  of  its  protection  who  shamelessly  refuse 
loyalty  and  allegiance  to  our  country  when  the  supreme 
test  comes;  and  we  at  once  demand  why  the  agencies 
responsible  for  educating,  Americanizing,  and  socializing 
our  adopted  citizens  do  not  do  their  work. 

And  this  practical  attitude,  or  scientific  spirit,   if  you 

13 


NEW   PROGRAM   OF   RELIGIOUS   EDUCATION 

will  call  it  that,  extends  to  the  functions  of  the  church 
as  well.  We  are  bent  on  carrying  out  very  Uterally  the 
injunction  to  "prove  all  things."  We  are  willing  to 
"hold  fast  to  that  which  is  good,"  but  we  want  to  be  very 
sure  that  it  will  not  turn  to  dust  and  ashes  if  we  are  to 
hold  to  it.  Hence  it  is  that  standards  which  have  been 
accepted  for  centuries  are  being  ruthlessly  examined,  and 
methods  which  have  been  employed  for  generations  are 
required  to  defend  their  position.  Tradition  is  no  longer 
held  in  supreme  regard  just  as  tradition,  nor  dogma 
because  it  is  dogma.  Nothing  is  secure  that  cannot  prove 
its  right  to  a  place  in  the  scheme  of  things  as  they  are  or 
as  they  ought  to  be.  Measure,  evaluate,  test — these  are 
the  watchwords  of  the  present-day  spirit,  and  they  will 
inevitably  be  applied  to  the  church  and  its  methods  in 
common  with  other  forms  of  social  enterprise. 

TESTS  TO  BE  APPLIED  TO  THE  CHURCH 

In  so  far  as  the  results  of  the  church's  enterprises  and 
activities  are  measurable  at  all  (many  of  them  are  not 
measurable),  they  should  be  measured  by  the  same 
standards  that  would  apply  to  other  social  institutions. 
The  church  can  claim,  and  desires  to  claim,  no  exemp- 
tions because  it  is  a  church.  Yet  the  church  can  be  most 
fairly  judged  and  most  fruitfully  criticized  by  its  friends 
— those  who  believe  in  it  and  its  mission.  The  best  friend 
of  the  church,  however,  is  not  the  one  who  accords  it 
warm  but  indiscriminating  praise,  ignoring  its  weak- 
nesses and  errors.  In  the  end  we  gain  little  from  the 
physician  who,  instead  of  correctly  diagnosing  our  ail- 
ment, would  lull  us  into  a  false  sense  of  security  and  well- 
being  when  a  disease  has  fastened  itself  upon  us.  One  of 
the  great  needs  of  the  church  to-day  is  fearless,  friendly, 
clear-headed  constructive  evaluation  and  criticism;  not 

14 


CHANGING  CONCEPTS 

for  the  purpose  of  finding  fault  but  with  a  view  to  clearer 
definition  of  aims  and  more  effective  methods. 

What  are  the  tests  by  which  the  church  is  to  be  judged 
as  to  its  efficiency  and  promise — by  which  it  is  to  judge 
itself?  Probably  we  shall  not  all  agree  upon  the  details  of 
these  tests,  but  upon  the  broader  principles  involved  there 
should  he  little  room  for  controversy;  and  space  will  here 
permit  the  statement  of  only  the  most  general  principles. 

llie  churches  aim.  Has  the  church  a  clearly  defined 
aim,  certain  definite  and  attainable  ends  set  as  the  goal 
of  its  effort?  Does  it  know  exactly  what  it  is  trying  to 
do,  so  that  it  may  determine  whether  it  is  succeeding  or 
failing  in  its  enterprises?  And  are  the  goals  sought 
sufficiently  concrete  and  real,  so  that  it  may  be  surely 
known  when  they  have  been  attained  or  missed?  Does 
the  church  know  the  true  function  of  a  church  in  a  social 
process  such  as  that  of  the  present,  so  it  may  judge 
whether  this  function  is  being  fulfilled? 

It  has  been  estimated  that  in  the  world  war  an  average 
of  one  thousand  shots  were  required  to  hit  a  man.  And 
this  in  spite  of  the  many  marvelously  refined  range- 
finding  devices  and  niceties  of  mechanism  for  aiming  the 
guns.  One  is  bewildered  by  the  thought  of  how  many 
shots  would  have  been  required  to  hit  a  man  if  there  had 
been  no  definite  aiming  and  no  specific  objectives!  Has 
the  church  improved  and  efficient  range-finding  devices? 
Has  it  sufficiently  well-defined  objectives?  Does  it  know 
what  it  is  aiming  at? 

No  one  will  dare  to  be  dogmatic  in  answering  the  ques- 
tion about  the  church's  concept  of  its  aim — unless  he 
chances  to  belong  to  an  infallible  (!)  church.  Yet  there 
are  many  evidences  of  confusion  in  thinking  or  of  failure 
to  think  at  all  about  the  true  aim  and  function  of  the 
church. 

IS 


NEW   PROGRAM   OF   RELIGIOUS   EDUCATION 

To  some  the  church  is  a  glorious  heritage  handed  down 
by  saints  and  martyrs,  a  precious  charge  to  be  zealously 
guarded  and  defended  and  kept  unspotted  from  contact 
with  an  unfriendly  world. 

To  others  it  is  a  means  and  a  symbol  of  personal  salva- 
tion, a  convenient  instrument  for  a  preliminary  separat- 
ing of  the  sheep  from  the  goats,  a  secure  fold  in  which  the 
elect  can  rest  and  possess  a  foretaste  of  the  bliss  that 
awaits  them  in  the  world  to  come. 

To  still  others  the  church  is  a  social  refuge,  a  kind  of 
club  to  which  we  go  on  Sundays  and  listen  to  a  sermon, 
perhaps  worship,  and  hear  attractive  music  and  see  and 
be  seen. 

Or  it  is  so  many  buildings,  more  or  less  impressive, 
usually  with  spires,  often  with  bells,  with  organs  and 
altars  and  pulpits  and  pews,  with  doors  always  op>en  on 
Sundays  and  commonly  closed  most  of  the  rest  of  the 
week.  But  a  church  must  be  more  than  any  or  all  of 
these  things. 

To  a  promising  and  growing  nucleus  the  church  is  a 
means  and  not  an  end;  a  cooperative  association  of  those 
who  believe  in  the  way  of  living  set  forth  by  Jesus,  both 
for  themselves  and  the  world  at  large;  an  instrument  for 
the  Joining  of  our  common  effort  in  making  practically 
effective  in  the  social  life  of  to-day  the  spirit  and  message 
of  its  Founder;  a  going  concern,  which  must  be  keenly 
sensitive  to  each  changing  spiritual  problem  of  its  genera- 
tion, ready  at  any  moment  to  adapt  method  and  program 
to  meet  the  needs  of  those  it  serves;  a  democracy  of 
opportunity  for  spiritual  growth,  the  development  of 
character  and  the  offering  of  unselfish  service  for  the 
betterment  of  our  generation. 

All  these  and  various  other  concepts  of  the  true  nature 
and  mission  of  the  church  exist  in  the  minds  of  the  mass 

i6 


CHANGING  CONCEPTS 

of  its  constituents.  There  is  great  need  of  a  clear,  con- 
vincing dominant  note  of  enlightenment  and  conviction 
sounded  by  recognized  leaders  of  the  great  rank  and  file 
on  this  important  question  of  what  the  church  really  is 
and  what  it  is  for. 

The  simple  fact  is  that  in  spite  of  much  zealous  and 
violent  suppression  of  error;  in  spite  of  many  battles 
royal  over  conflicting  theologies;  in  spite  of  subtly  de- 
fended claims  to  the  possession  of  infallible  truth  concern- 
ing the  church;  in  spite  of  recent  centuries  of  freedom 
for  laboratory  experiment  in  the  Christian  religion;  and 
(strangest  of  all  anomalies!)  in  spite  of  the  surpassingly 
simple  and  clear  message  of  the  gospel,  the  church  seems 
still  to  be  uncertain  of  its  true  aim  and  mission.  Most  of 
all  is  it  uncertain  as  to  the  best  methods  for  carrying  out 
its  aims.  The  inevitable  result  of  this  confusion  is  un- 
certainty, indifference,  lack  of  confidence,  energy  working 
at  cross-purposes,  and  consequent  loss  of  power  and 
failure  of  achievement.  The  church  believes  it  is  on  the 
way  but  is  not  wholly  sure  whither  it  is  going  or  the  best 
way  to  take  to  reach  its  destination. 

The  influettce  of  the  church.  Is  the  program  of  the 
church  succeeding?  Does  it  attract  to  itself  not  only  in- 
creasing numbers  of  i>eople,  but  an  increasing  proportioti 
of  the  population?  Is  the  growth  of  the  church  satis- 
factory? Does  its  prestige  increase?  Is  its  voice  accepted 
as  a  voice  of  authority  when  it  speaks  on  moral  and 
religious  questions?  Are  its  own  constituents  trained  and 
intelligent,  loyal  to  the  church  and  informed  as  to  its 
enterprises?  Do  they  readily  and  efficiently  participate 
in  the  program  of  the  church's  activities,  freely  rendering 
service  through  its  agencies? 

Here  again  the  answer  must  be  relative,  for  there  has 
been  far  from  failure  in  most  of  these  items.    Yet  the 

17 


NEW   PROGRAM   OF  RELIGIOUS   EDUCATION 

showing  in  some  of  them  gives  thoughtful  friends  of  the 
church  grave  concern  and  suggests  the  necessity  for 
careful  consideration  in  order  to  save  from  actual  dis- 
aster. 

For  example,  the  church  has  unquestionably  suffered 
a  considerable  loss  of  prestige  in  the  last  generation  or 
two.  It  has  lost  both  relatively  and  actually  in  esteem 
and  authority.  Nor  will  it  do  to  ascribe  this  attitude  of 
the  public  to  a  growing  world liness  for  which  the  church 
is  not  to  be  held  accountable.  There  are  many  evidences 
that  the  disaffection  is  not  against  religion,  but,  rather, 
against  the  church  as  an  instrument  of  religion.  Further, 
if  there  has  been  an  actual  decline  in  responsiveness  to 
religion,  the  church  must  be  held  responsible  for  this  con- 
dition, for  it  is  the  business  of  the  church  so  to  meet  its 
problem  and  adjust  itself  to  human  needs  that  wide- 
spread irreligion  does  not  develop  in  its  constituency. 

A  natural  result  of  loss  of  prestige  on  the  part  of  the 
church  is  failure  to  attract  membership.  No  complete 
and  dependable  statistics  on  church  affiliations  in  the 
United  States  exist.  The  following  figures  are,  however, 
probably  approximately  correct.^ 

Protestants  in  the  United  States 24,354,000 

Catholics,  Jews  and  other  non-Protestants. .  21,076,000 
Not  members  of  any  church 58,110,000 

Thus  it  is  seen  that  fifty-six  per  cent  of  our  population 
are  not  members  of  any  church.  The  proportion  is  even 
more  unfavorable  than  appears  on  the  face,  since  many 
whose  names  are  on  church  rolls  are  practically  never 
found  in  church  buildings.  Perhaps  even  a  worse  feature 
is  that  there  are  some  twenty-seven  million  children  and 

« From  Inter-Church  World  Survey,  p.  208. 

18 


CHANGING  CONCEPTS 

youth  (under  twenty-five  years  of  age)  in  the  United 
States  who  are  receiving  no  religious  instruction  and  are 
practically  without  direct  religious  contacts.  Probably 
three  children  and  youth  out  of  four  under  eighteen  years 
of  age  are  receiving  no  religious  instruction.  But  the  most 
discouraging  factor  of  all  is  that  this  unfortunate  condi- 
tion has  been  gradually  growing  worse  instead  of  better. 
Just  at  present  there  are  some  signs  of  a  slightly  turning 
tide,  but  the  change  is  not  yet  marked. 

As  an  inevitable  corollary  of  this  showing,  there  is  a 
widespread  and  increasing  ignorance  of  the  Bible  and  the 
Christian  religion  among  all  classes  of  our  people.  And 
this  spiritual  illiteracy  occurs  at  a  time  when  general 
education  and  enlightenment  are  rapidly  advancing. 

Even  children  and  youth  reared  in  church  homes  and, 
more  astounding  still,  those  whose  names  are  on  the  roll 
of  the  Sunday  school  often  show  little  knowledge  of  the 
Bible  and  of  the  fundamentals  of  the  Christian  religion. 
Of  the  church  and  its  program,  even  of  the  particular 
church  in  which  membership  is  held,  little  is  known  by 
the  average  church  member.  The  church  cannot  build 
safely  on  the  foundation  of  a  constituency  who  do  not 
go  to  church,  and  do  not  know  their  Bibles  or  the  founda- 
tions of  the  Christian  faith. 

Some  will  raise  the  cry  of  alarmist  at  this  point  and 
call  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  church  has  had  a  long 
history,  has  withstood  many  attacks  and  much  hardship 
and  persecution,  and  is  stronger  to-day  than  ever  before. 

As  was  said  in  the  earlier  part  of  this  discussion  none 
need  be  alarmed  concerning  the  continued  existence  of 
the  church  as  an  institution.  The  question  is  not  the 
saving  of  the  body  of  the  church  but  the  salvation  of  its 
soul  and  of  the  world.  The  Christian  Church  has  now 
had  three  centuries  of  absolute  freedom  in  this  country. 

19 


NEW   PROGRAM   OF   RELIGIOUS   EDUCATION 

Yet  to-day  we  find  it  occupying  but  a  comparatively 
small  part  of  its  rightful  territory,  its  membership,  if  not 
relatively  on  the  decrease,  for  the  last  two  decades  at 
least  not  making  marked  advance,  its  constituency  not 
deeply  interested  in  the  written  or  the  preached  Word, 
its  children  growing  up  in  varying  degrees  of  ignorance 
of  religious  matters,  its  spiritual  dynamic  unable  to  stem 
the  tide  of  moral  laxness  and  lowered  ethical  standards 
now  sweeping  over  the  nation. 

Now,  these  facts  call  for  explanation.  There  is  failure, 
at  least  relative  failure,  somewhere.  Is  Jesus  Christ  a 
failure?  Is  the  message  and  program  that  he  gave  un- 
equal to  the  task  laid  upon  it  in  this  century?  Or 
is  the  church  failing — failing  through  its  program  and  its 
method  to  give  the  system  set  forth  by  Jesus  a  fair  trial? 

The  church  should  not  rest  until  this  question  is 
satisfactorily  answered  and  the  challenge  fairly  met. 

WHAT  SHALL  THE  CHURCH  DO   TO  BE  SAVED? 

What  shall  the  church  do  to  be  saved?  The  most 
immediate  and  possibly  the  most  important  thing  it  can 
do  is  to  welcome  and  accept  wholeheartedly  the  challenge 
that  comes  to  it  in  this  modern  demand  for  practical 
results.  For  whether  with  its  consent  or  without  it,  this 
test  will  be  applied,  is  even  now  being  applied  and  judg- 
ment will  be  rendered. 

If  the  church  is  willing  to  face  the  issue  squarely;  if 
it  recognizes  that  it  will  not  serve  to  continue  on  the 
basis  of  its  present  efficiency;  if  it  will  earnestly  go  at 
the  business  of  finding  out  its  own  weaknesses  and  seek- 
ing to  remedy  them;  if  it  will  concern  itself  with  dis- 
covering how  to  fulfill  its  function  in  the  rather  unsatis- 
factory world  of  to-day  instead  of  expending  its  energies 
in  defending  its  traditions  (though  many  of  its  traditions 

20 


CHANGING  CONCEPTS 

will  grow  stronger  with  sharp  testing) ;  if  in  self-forgetful- 
ness  it  will  seek  to  serve  rather  than  to  be  served — then 
the  church  shall  be  saved  and,  saving  itself,  will  save  the 
spiritual  values  of  civilization.  But  if  the  church  is  not 
wise  enough  or  great  enough  to  do  these  things,  .  .  . 


21 


CHAPTER  II 
CONFLICTING  CURRENTS 

Conflict  of  opinion  is  not  to  be  deplored  in  the 
church  any  more  than  in  any  other  social  organization; 
for  truth  oftenest  emerges  out  of  free  discussion,  and 
opposing  policies  or  principles  are  best  tested  in  com- 
petitive struggle  against  each  other.  Yet  the  contest  is 
seldom  an  even  one,  for  the  presupposition  is  always  in 
favor  of  that  which  is.  Tradition  gives  an  advantage 
to  principles  long  accepted  and  to  policies  already  in 
operation.  The  burden  of  proof  is  rightly  upon  those 
who  would  make  a  change.  The  conservative  has  only 
to  "sit  tight,"  the  progressive  must  make  his  case. 
Especially  is  this  true  in  the  field  of  religion  which, 
from  its  very  nature,  is  and  should  be  conservative. 

Perhaps  the  opening  sentence  should  be  modified  to 
say  that  conflict  of  opinion  and  the  waging  of  discussion 
are  not  to  be  deplored  unless  the  conflict  and  the  dis- 
cussion absorb  interest  and  dissipate  energies  that 
should  go  into  action.  It  is  possible,  even  in  the  church, 
for  opposing  camps  to  be  so  busy  confounding  each 
other  that  the  common  enemy  goes  unscathed.  It 
sometimes  happens  that  lack  of  understanding  and 
mutual  suspicion  of  sections  within  an  organization 
render  impossible  the  team  work  required  for  success 
and  so  defeat  the  purpose  of  the  enterprise. 

Such  a  situation  of  misunderstanding  and  strain  exists 
in  some  degree  in  the  Protestant  Church  to-day.  Two 
sets  of  principles  and  policies  are  increasingly  in  con- 
flict.   And  until  this  conflict  is  settled  and  concert  of 

22 


CONFLICTING  CURRENTS 

effort  and  action  rendered  possible  the  work  of  the 
church  cannot  go  forward  successfully. 

THE  VIEWPOINT  OF  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION 

On  the  one  hand  we  have  a  new  group,  the  advocates 
of  religious  education.  Right  or  wrong,  they  are  the 
progressives  of  the  church  on  this  particular  issue,  for 
they  counsel  a  radical  change  of  method  and  a  marked 
shifting  of  emphasis  by  the  church  in  its  program  of 
activities.  They  have  through  their  plans  and  enter- 
prises even  given  us,  within  the  last  decade,  the  new 
term  in  our  religious  vocabulary,  "religious  education." 
To  them  also  we  owe  another  term,  the  "church  school." 

The  promoters  of  religious  education  are  not  timid. 
They  feel  sure  of  their  ground.  They  tell  us  that  tJte 
primary  obligation  and  opportunity  of  the  church,  standing 
out  ahead  of  all  other  obligations  and  opportunities  what- 
soever, is  the  religious  education  of  its  childhood  and 
youth.  True,  they  do  not  make  religious  education  the 
only  function  of  the  church.  They  recognize  the  fact 
that  the  church  must  minister  to  many  social  interests 
and  needs;  the  church  must  be  an  evangelist  to  reclaim 
the  wayward,  a  philanthropist  to  help  the  needy,  an 
educator  to  war  against  ignorance,  a  missionary  to  less 
favored  peoples,  a  reformer  setting  up  standards  of 
righteousness. 

Yet  the  advocates  of  religious  education  insist  that 
the  religious  nurture  and  training  of  childhood  and 
youth  is  a  greater  and  more  fundamental  thing  than  the 
reclaiming  through  evangelistic  effort  of  adults,  or  than 
the  promotion  of  philanthropic  enterprises,  or  than  the 
waging  of  social  reforms.  These  believers  in  religious 
education  do  not  advise  that  the  church  relax  its  efiforts 
at  reclamatory  evangeUsm,  that  it  lay  aside  its  philan- 

23 


NEW   PROGRAM   OF   RELIGIOUS   EDUCATION 

thropic  work,  that  it  quit  the  field  of  social  reform,  or, 
indeed,  that  it  lay  down  any  other  good  work.  But  they 
do  insist  that  first  things  shall  come  first,  and  they  are 
very  confident  what  the  first  things  are.  So  they  de- 
mand that  the  church  adopt  a  new  program  with  reli- 
gious education  in  capital  letters  at  the  head  of  the  list 
of  its  enterprises,  conceiving  this  as  the  foundation  of 
all  other  church  activities  or  programs.  Contrary  to  the 
assertion  that  "the  great  need  of  the  church  is  new 
zeal,"  these  leaders  say  that  it  needs  first  of  all  new 
method,  and  that  out  of  this  new  zeal  will  come. 

Pursuant  to  this  policy  the  religious  educationists 
undertake  to  apply  the  scientific  principles  of  general 
education  to  the  teaching  of  religion.  They  insist  that 
religion  can  be  taught  just  as  other  things  can  be  taught. 
They  tell  us  that  the  same  powers  of  mind  are  used  in 
unfolding  the  religious  consciousness,  apprehending  re- 
ligious knowledge,  developing  religious  emotions,  and 
arriving  at  religious  decisions  that  apply  in  other  forms 
of  experience;  and  that  therefore  the  genetic  psychology 
of  religion  must  govern  the  treatment  accorded  the 
child  in  his  religious  life. 

On  the  practical  side  these  advocates  of  religious  edu- 
cation advise  that  more  of  the  child's  education  time 
shall  be  given  to  education  in  religion.  They  ask  public 
school  authorities  to  surrender  a  portion  of  the  school 
time  for  instruction  in  religion  to  be  conducted  under 
the  auspices  of  the  church.  Where  time  cannot  be  had 
from  this  source  they  ask  parents  to  send  their  children 
to  religious  classes  before  or  after  the  public-school  day, 
or  on  Saturdays.  They  invite  children  to  attend  the 
classes  in  religion,  either  taking  a  part  of  their  public 
school  time  or  a  part  of  their  play  time  for  this  extra 
work. 

24 


CONFLICTING  CURRENTS 

Having  planned  for  the  children,  these  educators  ad- 
dress the  teachers  of  religion  and  officers  in  the  church 
schools.  They  are  asked  to  attend  training  schools,  or 
to  organize  study  classes,  or  to  follow  a  prescribed 
course  of  professional  reading  in  order  that  they  may 
apply  the  scientific  principles  and  methods  of  educa- 
tion to  their  teaching  or  supervision. 

Next  they  approach  the  churches  themselves  and  ask 
them  for  a  greatly  increased  budget  to  employ  paid 
teachers  of  rehgion  for  week-day  classes  and  directors 
of  religious  education  and  in  order  to  buy  new  educa- 
tional equipment  and  build  classrooms  in  which  the 
teaching  of  religion  may  go  on.  They  come  to  the 
church  editors  and  publishers  and  ask  for  new  curric- 
ulum materials. 

THE  EVANGELISTIC  VIEWPOINT 

On  the  other  hand  is  another  and  at  present  a  much 
larger  group,  the  conservatives  of  the  church,  who  are 
complacent  over  the  present  system,  or  who  are  indif- 
ferent to,  mildly  opposed  to,  or  frankly  skeptical  about 
the  whole  movement  for  "religious  education."  Another 
fad,  they  say,  which  will  have  its  little  run  and  then  die 
out  as  so  many  other  fads  have  done  before,  while  the 
grand  old  church  goes  on  forever.  Besides,  they  add, 
have  we  not  the  Sunday  school  with  its  millions  of 
children,  and  its  thousands  of  devoted  teachers  and 
officers  who  give  themselves  gladly  to  the  religious 
training  of  children?  And  does  not  an  astonishingly 
large  proportion  of  our  church  membership  come  from 
the  Sunday  school?  Religious  education!  What  would 
you  have?  Are  not  our  children  now  receiving  the  reli- 
gious instruction  they  require? 

Nor  are  many  of  the  conservative  group  without  sus- 

25 


NEW   PROGRAM   OF   RELIGIOUS   EDUCATION 

picion  that  there  is  grave  danger  that  "religious  educa- 
tion" will  end  by  substituting  ediicaiion  for  religion.  A 
representative  of  this  group,  addressing  a  Sunday- 
school  convention,  asserts,  "The  Sunday  school  trains 
the  heart,  while  'religious  education'  trains  only  the 
head.  Now,  religion  is  more  a  matter  of  the  heart  than 
the  head.  Therefore  the  safest  thing  is  to  support  the 
good  old-fashioned  Sunday  school  and  let  'reUgious 
education'  alone."  Another,  this  time  one  who  holds 
one  of  the  highest  offices  in  the  gift  of  the  church  says, 
"  'Religious  education'  is  all  right  in  its  way,  but  what 
we  need  is  to  get  back  to  the  good  old-fashioned  re- 
vivals and  the  good  old-fashioned  religion."  Another 
conservative  church  official,  addressing  a  group  of  young 
ministers,  advises  them,  "Give  less  time  to  'religious 
education'  so  called  and  more  time  to  preaching  the 
effects  of  sin."  Still  another  traditionist  leader, 
speaking  to  an  assembly  of  religious  workers,  advocates 
religious  education,  but  concludes  his  address  with  the 
advice,  "If  a  child  can  go  but  to  the  Sunday  school  or 
to  the  public  preaching  service  on  Sunday,  by  all  odds 
take  him  to  the  latter."  In  other  words,  not  teaching, 
after  all,  but  preaching  is  what  the  child  requires. 

What  the  child  needs,  says  this  group,  is  just  what 
any  person  needs,  to  be  "soundly  converted."  He 
needs  to  "accept  Christ"  and  become  a  Christian. 
What  we  ought  to  desire  for  the  church,  they  tell  us,  is 
not  more  "religious  education"  but  more  evangelism  in 
order  to  bring  men  (and  children!)  to  a  sense  of  their 
sin,  to  repentance,  to  divine  acceptance  and  to  regenera- 
tion. Said  one  distinguished  evangelist:  "If  I  had  a 
million  dollars  to  spend  for  religion,  I  would  use  nine 
hundred  and  ninety-nine  thousand,  nine  hundred  and 
ninety-nine  dollars  and  ninety-nine  cents  for  evangel- 

26 


CONFLICTING  CURRENTS 

ism;  and  then  I  might  use  the  remaining  one  cent  for 
religious  education." 

True,  the  conservative  group  does  not  ignore  religious 
education,  as  conducted  in  the  typical  Sunday  school. 
Indeed,  it  is  this  group  that  has  built  the  Sunday  school 
up  to  its  present  status.  But  by  religious  education  in 
this  sense  they  do  not  mean  just  what  the  advocates  of 
rehgious  education  mean.  They  look  upon  the  Sunday 
school  not  primarily  as  educational  but  evangelistic  in 
function.  Its  primary  purpose  from  their  point  of  view 
is  to  prepare  the  child  for  conversion  and  lead  him  to 
membership  in  the  church.  When  these  ends  are  ac- 
compUshed  the  great  objective  of  the  Sunday  school 
has,  as  they  conceive  it,  been  accomplished. 

CONTRASTING   THE   TWO  POINTS   OF  VIEW 

These  deep  and  far-reaching  diiBferences  of  position 
and  policy  are  partly,  but  only  partly,  removable  by  a 
fuller  understanding,  each  of  the  position  of  the  other. 
Though  it  is  probable  that  the  progressive,  the  rehgious 
educationist,  understands  the  position  of  the  conserva- 
tive, the  traditionalist,  better  than  the  position  of  the 
former  is  understood  by  the  latter.  This  is  for  the 
simple  reason  that  present  religious  educational  leaders 
have  for  the  most  part  grown  up  under  the  older  tra- 
ditions and  have  separated  themselves  from  the  tra- 
ditionalist pohcy  from  conviction,  and  hence  know 
what  that  position  is. 

The  differences  between  the  points  of  view  of  these 
two  groups  are  chiefly  the  differences  of  two  contrasting 
methods  which  may  for  our  present  purpose  be  called 
the  educational  method  and  the  evangelistic  method.  A 
parallel  comparison  of  the  two  methods  will  serve  to 
bring  out  their  respective  characteristics. 

27 


NEW   PROGRAM   OF   RELIGIOUS   EDUCATION 


The  Educational  Point  of     The  Evangelistic  Point   oj 
View  View 


1.  The  child  is  at  the 
beginning  right  with  God 
(the  explicit  statement  of 
the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  and  the  view  ac- 
cepted by  most  evangelical 
Christians  and  certain 
others.) 

2.  The  aim  of  the  reli- 
gious educational  process 
is  to  lead  to  a  gradual  and 
continuous  unfoldment  of 
the  spiritual  nature  of  the 
child  such  as  results  from  a 
perpetual  acceptance  of  the 
Christian  way  from  the 
beginning.  This  accept- 
ance is  at  first  unconscious, 
being  directed  by  nurture 
and  instruction,  and  leads 
to  the  formation  of  reli- 
gious habits,  interests,  and 
ideals. 

3.  The  child  whose  reli- 
gious consciousness  devel- 
ops normally  will  naturally 
and  inevitably  come  to  a 
time  or  to  times  of  per- 
sonal acceptance  of  the 
Christian  way  (that  is  of 
Christ),  thus  adopting  by 
conscious  choice  the  rela- 
tionship ■*  and    obligations 


I.  Whatever  the  status 
of  the  child  at  the  be- 
ginning he,  nevertheless, 
because  of  inherent  sinful 
tendencies,  requires  recla- 
mation through  conversion. 


2.  The  aim  of  the  Sunday 
school  is  to  prepare  the 
child  for  the  day  when  he 
will  become  "converted" 
and  "accept  Christ."  In 
this  connection  and  to  this 
end  he  is  to  be  instructed 
in  the  Bible  and  religion. 


3.  When  the  person  has 
once  been  "converted"  the 
great  work  of  saving  grace 
is  completed.  The  person 
concerned  is  now  a  "Chris- 
tian," is  "saved,"  a  mem- 
ber of  the  "fold."  Growth 
from  this  on  may  be  de- 
sirable, but,  after  all,  the 
great  thing  has  been  ac- 


28 


CONFLICTING   CURRENTS 


The  Educational  Point  of     The  Evangelistic  Point   of 
View  View 


complished,  in  the  one 
cataclysmic  act  of  being 
converted. 


into  which  he  has  grad- 
ually been  led  from  earliest 
childhood.  This  personal 
commitment  of  the  child- 
Christian  is  both  natural 
and  desirable.  It  should 
not,  however,  be  called 
"conversion,"  in  the  sense 
of  reclamation  from  spirit- 
ual indifference,  hostility, 
or  evil. 

4.  Religious  experience, 
like  any  other  form  of  ex- 
perience, is  a  gradual 
growth,  a  process  of  evo- 
lution in  the  life.  Hence 
spiritual  growth  obeys  the 
same  laws  that  govern  in 
other  phases  of  the  life  and 
in  other  forms  of  human 
experience.  A  full,  rich 
religious  consciousness  and 
sense  of  personal  accept- 
ance and  spiritual  well- 
being  may  therefore  be  at- 
tained by  the  normal 
growth  process  pro\iding 
right  nurture  and  guidance 
are  provided. 

5.  Accepting  the  position  5.  While  possibly  accept- 
of  the  child's  right  status  ing  for  purposes  of  theo- 
with  God,  but  conscious  of  logical  discussion  the 
native    tendencies   in    the  theory  of  the  child's  right 

29 


4.  The  entering  into  reli- 
gious experience  and  right 
relationships  with  God  is 
accomplished  at  the  time 
of  "conversion,"  the  occa- 
sion usually  being  accom- 
panied by  a  feeling  of 
emotional  stress,  a  sense  of 
guilt,  repentance,  submis- 
sion, and  acceptance  by 
Christ. 


NEW  PROGRAM   OF  RELIGIOUS   EDUCATION 


The  Edticational  Point  of 

View 

original  nature  which  will, 
if  unchecked,  lead  to  evil, 
the  religious  educational 
process  strives  to  keep  the 
original  bond  with  the  Di- 
vine unbroken,  so  that 
reclamation  will  never  be 
required.  The  program  of 
the  church  is,  therefore,  to 
be,  first  of  all,  one  of  con- 
servation of  childhood 
rather  than  reclamation  of 
adults. 

6.  It  is  freely  admitted 
that  the  religious  educa- 
tion program  cannot  be 
made  to  work  one  hundred 
per  cent  effectively. 
Through  lack  of  human 
wisdom,  through  spiritual 
indifference  in  the  home, 
through  abnormalities  in 
child  nature  and  through 
failure  to  put  the  religious 
educational  program  into 
effect,  the  church  will  still 
require  a  well-planned  and 
well-executed  program  of 
reclamatory  evangelism. 
The  importance  and  neces- 
sity of  this  salvaging  pro- 
cess will  naturally  grow  less 
as  the  religious  educational 
program  is  more  fully  de- 


The  Evangelistic  Point  of 
View 

status  with  God,  there  is, 
nevertheless,  a  tacit  as- 
sumption in  favor  of  "orig- 
inal sin"  or  a  "depraved 
nature"  which  for  all  prac- 
tical purposes  makes  it 
necessary  for  the  church 
to  make  its  program  largely 
one  of  reclamation. 


6.  Religious  education  is 
welcomed  provided  it  act 
as  an  aid  to  evangelism, 
but  decidedly  not  if  it  seeks 
to  render  evangeKsm  un- 
necessary. Evangelism  is 
the  primary  enterprise  of 
the  church. 


30 


CONFLICTING  CURRENTS 


The  Evangelistic  Point  of 
View 


7.  The  preaching  of  the 
Word  is  the  great  mission 
of  the  church.  The  chil- 
dren should  regularly  at- 
tend the  preaching  service, 
though  the  preaching  will 
be  directed  to  adults. 


The  Educational  Point   of 

View 

velop)ed.  Evangelism  is 
rightly  the  last  resort  of 
the  church  instead  of  its 
primary  enterprise;  a  con- 
fession of  failure  or  weak- 
ness at  some  point  in  the 
religious  training  of  child- 
hood and  youth. 

7.  The  most  promising 
point  of  attack  and  the 
chief  strategic  opportunity 
of  the  church  is  with  child- 
hood. The  church  should 
therefore  make  teaching  in 
the  classroom  its  primary 
function  and  chief  method 
of  gaining  adherents  and 
training  them  to  Christian 
character  and  service. 


On  the  personal  side  the  members  of  these  two  groups 
work  in  entire  harmony  and  friendship,  with  sincere 
good  will  and  the  spirit  of  helpfulness.  Both  are  moved 
equally  to  promote  the  cause  of  Christianity  and  the 
church.  Each  takes  its  positions  from  deep  conviction 
(though  not  always  equally  reasoned  or  tested)  of  their 
validity  and  the  ultimate  success  of  the  methods  em- 
ployed. Each  is  actuated  by  praiseworthy  motives  and 
usually  by  commendable  zeal.  Still  they  differ  quite 
radically,  and  at  some  points  in  such  a  way  as  to  hamjjer 
the  success  of  the  great  enterprise  of  the  church. 

Who  is  right?  How  shall  the  radical  differences  be- 
tween these  two  points  of  view  be  reconciled?    Shall  the 

31 


NEW   PROGRAM   OF  RELIGIOUS   EDUCATION 

church  depend  chiefly  upon  the  evangelistic  method 
and  center  its  efiforts  on  adults  as  it  has  done  in  the  past, 
only  putting  more  zeal  into  the  world?  Or  shall  it 
change  its  method,  stressing  first  of  all  the  making  of 
Christians  by  the  gradual  processes  of  education,  and 
employing  the  evangelistic  method  as  a  supplement  in 
order  to  salvage  that  remnant  who  escape  the  educa- 
tional method  or  fail  to  respond  to  it?  No  more  im- 
portant question  than  this  now  confronts  the  church. 
Its  further  consideration  will  occupy  the  remaining 
pages  of  this  discussion. 


32 


CHAPTER  III 

WHAT  IS  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION 

No  small  part  of  the  indifference  or  hostility  to  religious 
education  comes  from  a  failure  fully  to  understand  just 
what  is  meant  by  one  or  both  of  the  terms  "education" 
and  "religion"  as  used  by  the  religious  educator. 

CHANGING  CONCEPTS  OF  EDUCATION 

The  word  "education"  does  not  mean  what  it  formerly 
did.  It  is,  of  course,  obvious  that  any  word  means  just 
what  those  who  use  it  put  into  it  as  meaning;  the  form 
of  the  word  may  remain  the  same  but  its  content  changes 
from  age  to  age. 

There  was  a  time  when  education  meant  only  the 
ability  of  a  slave  or  underling  to  read  an  occasional  letter 
or  legal  form  for  his  master;  or  to  write  at  his  dictation 
some  brief  communication  of  social  or  business  nature. 
Education  stood  for  so  little  in  the  thought  of  the  times 
that  the  man  of  affairs  would  have  none  of  it,  leaving 
that  to  those  he  could  command  or  hire. 

At  a  later  time  education  was  defined  chiefly  as  the 
ability  to  read  in  the  original  tongue  in  which  they  were 
written  certain  great  literary  classics  and  to  discourse 
learnedly  about  them;  manifestly  such  education  was  for 
the  few,  and  not  for  the  many.  Following  the  Lutheran 
Reformation  education  meant  the  power  to  read  the 
Scriptures,  each  for  himself,  translated  into  his  own 
native  tongue.  In  John  Locke's  time,  we  are  told,  educa- 
tion meant  the  training  to  be  an  English  gentleman — 
that  is,  the  preparation  to  spend  graciously  and  gracefully 
what  someone  else  had  provided. 

35 


NEW  PROGRAM   OF  RELIGIOUS   EDUCATION 

For  some  two  hundred  years  prior  to  the  opening  of 
the  twentieth  century  education  was  conceived  as  the 
discipline  of  the  mind,  the  training  of  the  intellect,  the 
sharpening  of  the  wits,  teaching  to  think,  reason,  dis- 
criminate. The  particular  kind  of  knowledge  gained  was 
not  nearly  so  important  as  the  exercise  the  mind  obtained 
in  the  operation.  So  that  the  matter  was  difficult  enough 
and  sufficiently  logical  to  afford  a  rigid  intellectual 
gymnastic  nothing  further  was  required. 

In  this  ^^ disciplinary^^  type  of  education  the  feeling 
and  volitional  side  of  life  was  neglected.  The  attitudes, 
the  emotions,  the  appreciations,  the  interests  were 
entirely  secondary.  Similarly,  the  instincts  were  over- 
looked, the  tendency  to  expression  was  ignored,  the 
motives  leading  to  self-activity  were  left  out  of  account; 
knowledge  was  "imparted"  to  a  passive  recipient.  There 
was  no  thought  of  carrying  instruction  directly  over  into 
action,  and  so  into  habit  and  character. 

There  are  many  earnest  people,  especially  those  ac- 
customed to  the  older  regime,  who  still  look  upon  educa- 
tion as  an  affair  of  the  head  only,  the  heart  (that  is,  the 
motives)  being  left  entirely  out.  To  them  education  con- 
cerns itself  solely  with  the  intellect,  storing  it  with 
knowledge  and  training  it  in  the  processes  of  thinking. 
Such  persons  say:  "This  may  be  all  right  for  general 
education,  but  not  for  religion;  for  religion  touches  the 
heart  even  more  than  the  head;  it  is  a  matter  of  affection, 
love,  loyalty,  devotion,  allegiance,  righteousness,  the 
indwelling  of  the  divine  spirit  in  the  human  heart.  And 
such  fruits  as  these  cannot  come  by  any  mere  training 
of  the  mind.  It  is  the  soul  we  seek  to  save  in  religion." 

Precisely.  And  that  is  what  education  undertakes  to 
do  in  the  modem  sense  of  education.  Education  deals, 
as  we  understand  the  term  now,  not  with  any  one  depart- 

34 


WHAT  IS  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION 

ment  of  life,  but  with  the  whole  of  it.  It  trains  the 
intellect  not  more  than  the  affections,  the  appreciations, 
the  loyalties,  the  devotions,  the  aspirations.  It  reaches 
down  to  the  springs  of  action,  influences  conduct,  forms 
character,  guides  achievement,  shapes  destiny.  Educa- 
tion trains  the  heart  as  much  as  the  head,  it  reaches  to  the 
will,  helping  form  its  decisions,  and  provides  motives  for 
self-direction.  It  app>eals  to  the  conscience,  stimulates 
self-resi>ect,  creates  regard  for  others,  and  sets  up  the  law 
of  allegiance  to  the  common  good.  It  deals  with  the 
whole  person  and  not  just  a  part. 

More  specifically,  the  aim  of  education  has  to-day  be- 
come very  concrete  and  definite.  It  looks  out  up>on  life, 
the  Ufe  of  to-day,  and  seeks  to  discover  what  that  life 
demands  of  the  individual  as  a  successful  participant  in 
the  social  process,  attaining  the  fullest  development  and 
satisfaction  for  himself  and  contributing  most  to  the  wel- 
fare of  his  geneiration.  What  Ufe  at  its  fullest  and  best  de- 
mands of  the  individual,  that  education  seeks  to  supply. 

There  are  three  things  which  life  demands  of  every 
normal  person: 

1.  Usable  knowledge;  either  (i)  to  function  in  the  gain- 
ing of  other  knowledge,  or  (2)  to  serve  as  a  guide  to 
action,  conduct,  character,  service  to  others. 

2.  Right  attiludes;  that  is,  fruitful  interests,  high  ideals, 
worthy  loyalties,  fine  appreciations,  noble  loves  and 
hates,  the  spirit  of  artistry  in  work  and  achievement,  the 
inclination  to  service,  such  standards  of  value  as  give  a 
true  philosophy  of  life. 

3.  Skills  hi  living;  the  power  and  the  will  to  carry  the 
knowledge  gained  and  the  attitudes  developed  directly 
over  into  daily  life  and  conduct,  thus  transforming  them 
into  action,  building  them  into  habit,  character,  achieve- 
ment. 

35 


NEW   PROGRAM   OF   RELIGIOUS   EDUCATION 

This,  in  brief  outline,  is  a  definition  of  the  purpose  of 
education  as  we  conceive  it  in  the  modern  sense.  It 
supplies  the  knowledge  necessary  to  intelligent  living  in 
the  world  to-day.  It  undertakes  to  stimulate,  organize, 
and  put  into  action  the  great  underlying  motives  that 
control  action  and  conduct.  It  seeks  to  make  knowledge 
and  motive  find  expression  at  once  in  applied  skills  to  be 
developed  and  used  in  the  everyday  run  of  daily  living. 
No  element  or  factor  of  the  life  is  to  be  omitted  from  the 
educational  ideal,  no  fundamental  need  is  to  be  neglected, 
no  power,  physical,  mental,  social,  or  spiritual  is  to  be 
left  out.  The  public  school  is  to  be  chiefly  responsible  for 
the  physical,  the  mental,  and  the  social.  The  church  must 
be  responsible  for  the  spiritiuil,  the  religious.  These  four 
factors,  rightly  developed  to  coordinate  with  each  other, 
will  give  us  a  complete  system  of  education  for  our  chil- 
dren, for  they  provide  for  the  four-told  nature  of  man  and 
meet  the  demands  which  life  puts  upon  the  individual. 

Now,  if  education  were  the  narrow  thing  that  many 
still  conceive  it  to  be;  if  it  reached  only  the  "head,"  thus 
training  the  intellect  but  leaving  the  "heart,"  the  great 
source  of  motives,  untouched;  if  it  did  not  concern  itself 
to  see  that  its  teachings  were  carried  over  into  action  and 
so  into  habit  and  character — if  these  things  were  true 
about  education,  then  religious  education  could  mean  little 
or  nothing,  and  every  person  who  believes  in  the  spiritual 
outcome  of  life  would  be  justified  in  being  skeptical  as  to 
its  value  for  the  church.  But  these  things  are  not  true  of 
education  to-day.  Education  has  entered,  in  the  last  two 
decades,  upon  a  new  era  of  meaning  and  of  service. 

This  is  education  in  the  newer  sense,  the  education 
which  gives  vital  meaning  to  the  term  when  we  say 
"religious  education."  It  is  this  new  meaning  of  educa- 
tion which  renders  this  proposition  true:  ^'Wliat  you  would 

36 


WHAT  IS  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION 

have  in  the  life  oj  the  church  you  must  first  put  into  its 
schools  y 

CHANGING  CONCEPTS   OF  RELIGION 

Religion  not  less  than  education  has  recently  been 
undergoing  a  re-definition  of  meaning  and  aims,  which 
makes  it  all  the  more  imperative  that  the  educational 
method  shall  be  employed.  It  is  yet  too  early  in  the 
process  of  readjustment  now  going  on  to  make  a  full 
interpretation  of  the  changes  in  religious  concepts  under 
way,  but  some  of  the  more  outstanding  changes  of  con- 
cept are  clear. 

Rehgion  is  becommg  more  of  a  dyndjmc  function  in  life, 
both  the  life  of  the  individual  and  the  life  of  society. 
Even  before  the  war  the  pragmatic  temper  was  growing, 
and  men  were  coming  to  judge  the  quality  of  rehgion  less 
by  the  creed  or  the  order  of  the  ritual  than  by  the  way 
personal  morals  and  action  and  conduct  in  social  relations 
squared  with  the  great  basic  demands  for  righteousness, 
justice,  and  decency  as  understood  by  the  common 
conscience  regardless  of  theology  or  creed.  The  efTect  of 
the  war  was,  of  course,  greatly  to  accentuate  and  stabiUze 
this  movement. 

While  this  age  has  too  keen  a  sense  for  psychological 
values  to  fail  to  recognize  the  importance  of  belief  in  re- 
ligion, its  demand  for  practical  values  is  so  strong  that 
it  is  concerned  primarily  for  the  gredit  fundamental  beliefs 
held  for  the  most  part  in  common  by  all  Christian  groups 
— behef  in  the  Fatherhood  of  God  and  his  goodness  to 
men;  in  the  value  of  righteousness  and  the  curse  of  sin; 
in  the  way  of  living  set  forth  by  Jesus  of  Nazareth. 
Theological  niceties  and  ecclesiastical  distinctions  have  a 
small  and  decreasing  interest  for  the  great  mass  of  persons 
to-day  who  are  interested  in  religion.    They  ask  for  a 

47520 


NEW  PROGRAM  OF  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION 

rule  of  life,  not  a  complicated  statement  of  creed  or  a 
particular  form  of  worship.  Religion  is  to  be  a  mode  of 
living,  a  type  of  character,  a  system  of  conduct,  and  not 
a  compartment  of  the  life  shut  off  from  the  remainder,  a 
section  of  experience  attended  to  on  Sundays  and  then 
locked  away  until  the  next  Sunday  comes  about.  It  is 
to  be  conceived  as  an  active,  working  principle  starting 
from  the  very  center  of  the  affections,  desires,  ideals, 
motives,  and  thence  working  outward  to  the  periphery  of 
the  life,  giving  color  and  tone  and  spiritual  quality  to  all 
other  phases  of  experience.  What  does  this  is  religion, 
and  what  fails  to  do  this  cannot  qualify  as  religion  under 
the  increasingly  practical  concept  of  it. 

Religion  is  becoming  increasingly  social  in  its  nature 
and  its  aims.  The  older  theology  made  of  it  a  very 
individual  matter  betv;een  one  person  and  his  Maker. 
The  great  goal  was  a  personal  salvation,  a  "getting  to 
heaven,"  a  keeping  free  from  the  snares  and  entangle- 
ments of  the  "world." 

Such  a  concept  is  not  sufficient  for  a  "social  century," 
however.  Individual  salvation  is  not  lost  sight  of,  but 
a  merely  selfish  personal  salvation  with  great  masses  of 
society  not  included  in  the  salvation  is  becoming  un- 
thinkable. "Serving  God"  is  coming  in  a  new  and  more 
pregnant  sense  to  mean  to  serve  his  needy  children.  Sal- 
vation of  the  soul  is  increasingly  conceived  to  be  linked 
up  with  saving  the  body,  the  health,  the  habits,  the 
ideals,  the  interests — indeed,  the  whole  range  of  the  being. 
Life  is  more  and  more  being  looked  upon  as  a  unity  in 
which  one  part  cannot  be  "saved"  while  the  remainder 
is  neglected  and  ignored.  The  "world"  is  being  inter- 
preted in  a  new  sense  as  the  environment  in  which  our 
lives  must  be  lived,  and  this  "world"  may  itself  be  trans- 
formed to  make  it  a  favorable  medium  in  which   to 

38 


WHAT  IS  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION 

cultivate  a  soul.  Indeed,  it  seems  that  it  may  become 
necessary  to  quit  speaking  of  ''the  world,  the  flesh,  and 
the  devil"  in  the  same  breath  as  natural  correlates. 

The  view  of  religion  that  gives  it  this  practical  applied 
trend,  that  makes  it  a  function  of  the  whole  life,  that  con- 
nects it  all  seven  days  of  the  week  with  individual  and 
social  conduct,  that  makes  it  an  integral  part  of  person- 
ality and  character — this  vastly  fruitful  and  dynamic 
concept  of  religion  carries  with  it  the  inevitable  corollary 
that  religion  is  a  matter  of  growth  and  development,  an 
inseparable  part  of  a  growing  and  expanding  life  expe- 
rience, no  more  to  be  attained  in  a  day  than  any  other 
aspect  of  the  nature.  This  is  equivalent  to  saying  that 
religion  is  best  and  most  efifectively  to  be  attained  grad- 
ually as  a  part  of  nurture  and  education;  for  only  in  that 
way  can  it  be  built  in  with  other  aspects  of  experience 
and  so  made  to  be  a  natural  expression  of  the  inner  self. 

THE  MEANING  OF  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION 

What,  then,  is  religious  education?  What  does  it  seek 
to  do  and  how  does  it  go  at  it? 

First,  on  the  negative  side,  what  religious  education 
does  not  do.  It  does  not,  as  some  have  feared,  seek  to 
substitute  any  process  of  mere  training  for  the  spiritual 
element  in  religion.  It  does  not  leave  the  divine  factor 
out,  oflfering  therefor  a  fund  of  information  about  religion. 
It  does  not  deny  the  fact  and  power  of  conversion  acting 
on  a  life  that  has  drifted  from  its  spiritual  relationships 
and  needs  to  recover  them.  It  does  not  aim  at  an  ethical 
system  alone,  unsupported  by  the  religious  motive.  In 
short,  it  does  not  omit  any  agency  commonly  used  by  the 
church  to  stimulate  and  develop  the  religious  conscious- 
ness, with  this  exception;  religious  education  seeks  to  save 
the  need  for  a  reclamatory  conversion,  and  in  its  stead 

39 


NEW  PROGRAM   OF  RELIGIOUS   EDUCATION 

substitute  a  gradual  and  natural  spiritual  growth  in  the 
course  of  which,  at  the  proper  age,  the  child  will  make  a 
personal  decision  and  acceptance  of  the  Christian  way  in 
which  he  has  from  the  beginning  been  led. 

On  the  positive  side,  religious  education  takes  the  child, 
endowed  through  his  original  nature  as  he  is  with  capac- 
ities both  for  evil  and  good,  and  seeks  to  stimulate  the 
good  and  suppress  the  bad,  using  for  this  purpose  religious 
instruction,  nurture,  and  guidance.  Far  from  discarding 
or  disregarding  the  supernatural  factor,  the  working  of 
the  "grace  of  God,"  religious  education  beUeves  so  thor- 
oughly in  this  factor  that  its  great  aim  is  to  keep  the 
bond  between  the  child  and  his  heavenly  Father  from 
ever  being  weakened  or  broken.  It  seeks  so  to  train  the 
child  and  stimulate  and  guide  his  spiritual  development 
that  this  divine  grace  shall  have  constant  access  to  the 
heart  and  hfe,  a  sustaining,  organizing,  upbuilding  power 
acting  continuously  upon  the  soul,  rather  than  expecting 
it  to  reclaim  a  sin-sick  soul  which  has  lost  its  way. 

Religious  education  believes  in  evolution,  the  evolution 
of  the  soul.  It  pins  its  faith  to  a  slow  and  steady  growth 
of  the  reHgious  consciousness  going  on  unbroken  from  the 
earliest  years  to  the  end  of  life.  It  accepts  the  position 
that  in  his  spiritual  development  the  child  employs  the 
same  powers  of  mind  and  heart  and  will  that  are  used  in 
other  avenues  of  experience  and  that  the  law  that  will 
hold  in  one  realm  of  experience  will  hold  in  another. 

Building  upon  this  position  religious  education  utilizes 
the  principles  and  methods  that  have  been  proved  suc- 
cessful in  other  phases  of  education,  adapting  them  to  the 
particular  aims  and  needs  of  rehgion.  It  believes  that 
what  you  would  have  in  the  life  of  a  people  you  must  first 
of  all  put  into  the  schools;  and,  believing  this,  undertakes 
to  put  reh'gion  into  the  (church)  schools  in  such  an  efifec- 

40 


WHAT  IS  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION 

tive  way  that  religious  concepts,  religious  attitudes,  and 
religious  activities  shall  become  an  integral  part  of  the 
child's  nature,  a  part  of  his  inner  self,  naturally  and  con- 
tinuously expressed  in  each  day's  life  as  it  is  lived  in  the 
common  round  of  responsibilities  and  duties. 

No  one  claims  that  religious  education  is  a  panacea. 
There  is  no  magic  in  it  any  more  than  in  any  other  kind 
of  education.  It  uses  the  method  of  the  tortoise  rather 
than  the  method  of  the  hare.  It  is  not  a  perfected  system, 
nor  indeed  ever  can  be.  It  will  never  produce  one  hundred 
per  cent  of  results.  Some  children,  owing  to  mistakes  and 
weaknesses  in  the  religious  educational  system  itself,  or 
because  of  negative  influences  operating  on  the  child 
from  some  other  phase  of  his  environment,  will  fail  to 
respond,  as  some  fail  to  respond  in  the  public-school 
system.  Some  will  never  be  brought  under  its  influence 
at  all,  either  through  the  lack  of  appeal  of  the  system  or 
the  indifference  of  their  parents  or  some  other  cause. 

We  will  remember  that  about  one  person  out  of  twelve 
above  ten  years  of  age  in  this  country  is  unable  to  read 
or  write — and  this  in  spite  of  what  is  probably  one  of  the 
best  systems  of  general  education  in  the  world.  There  will 
as  a  matter  of  course  continue  to  be  a  certain  percentage 
of  spiritual  illiterates,  no  matter  how  perfectly  we  under- 
take to  work  out  our  religious  education  program.  The 
church  will  always  require  its  other  agencies — its  pulpit, 
its  evangelism,  its  reform  programs,  and  many  other 
enterprises.  But  these  should  rest  on  a  solid  foundation 
of  religious  education,  which  alone  can  give  the  church 
an  intelligent,  loyal,  spiritually  equipped  body  of  workers 
to  carry  on  its  program. 


41 


CHAPTER  IV 
RELIGION  THROUGH  EDUCATION 

One  of  the  most  striking  social  phenomena  of  the 
present  day  is  a  world-wide  renaissance  in  educa- 
tion. Many  years  ago  von  Humboldt  said,  "What  you 
would  have  in  the  life  of  a  nation  you  must  first  put 
into  its  schools."  Acting  on  this  advice,  Germany  put 
militarism  into  her  schools  and  through  them  made  the 
World  War.  While  the  war  was  still  in  progress  every 
great  nation  involved  in  the  struggle  was  working  to- 
ward the  perfecting  of  plans  to  use  public  education  as 
a  chief  instrument  of  rehabilitation  the  moment  the 
time  was  rip>e.  Within  a  year  after  the  armistice  was 
signed  England  had  placed  on  her  statute  books  the 
most  far-reaching  educational  measure  the  empire  has 
ever  seen.  France  is  doing  her  best  to  a  more  effective 
system  of  national  education,  as  are  Germany,  Japan, 
China,  and  the  United  States. 

What  does  it  mean?  Simply  that  education  has  been 
newly  discovered.  The  state  has  come  to  see  that 
whatever  of  national  efificiency,  of  public  health,  of 
patriotism,  of  thrift,  of  character  we  would  have  in  our 
nation  we  must  put  into  its  schools  so  that  it  will  be- 
come a  part  of  the  life  and  experience  of  our  children 
from  earliest  childhood  to  maturity.  What  thus  grows 
up  with  the  individual  becomes  an  integral  part  of  him, 
a  permanent  p>ossession  in  his  life,  and  so  in  the  social 
aggregate  crystallizes  finally  into  national  type  and 
character. 

Does  this  principle  hold  for  religion?  Are  the  things 
of  the  Spirit  subject  to  the  same  laws  of  growth  and 

42 


RELIGION  THROUGH  EDUCATION 

development  that  apply  to  other  aspects  of  the  nature? 
May  a  full,  rich  religious  consciousness  be  attained  by  a 
process  of  gradual  evolution  in  the  individual  as  it  is  in 
the  race?  Can  one  grow  in  grace?  Can  the  child  be  so 
guided,  his  habits  so  shaped,  his  desires  so  trained,  his 
affections  so  formed,  his  sense  of  God's  presence  and 
meaning  in  the  world  and  in  his  own  life  so  cultivated 
that  he  will  never  know  a  moment  of  conscious  separa- 
-tion  from  the  Divine,  and  that  when  he  has  arrived  at 
the  age  of  personal  choice  and  self-direction  he  will  nat- 
urally and  inevitably  choose  to  follow  in  the  Way?  Is 
it  true  that  what  we  want  of  religion  in  the  life  of  our 
people  we  must  first  put  into  our  (church)  schools?  Can 
religion  he  taught? 

THE   TESTIMONY   OF   PERSONAL  EXPERIENCE 

Thousands  upon  thousands  of  devout  Christians  can 
testify  to  the  truth  of  this  statement:  Religion  can  be 
taught.  The  writer  has  asked  several  hundred  persons 
to  answer  the  following  questions: 

1.  Can  you  pwint  to  some  particular  time  or  occasion 
when  you  began  the  Christian  life,  in  the  act  commonly 
known  as  conversion,  meaning  by  this  a  turning  from  a 
state  of  spiritual  coldness  or  indi^erence  or  rebellion  to  a 
recognition  of  the  claims  of  Christ  upon  you  and  a  con- 
sciousness of  his  acceptance  of  you?    Or, 

2.  Did  you  grow  so  gradually  into  your  present  reli- 
gious status  that  you  cannot  point  to  any  particular  time 
or  occasion  when  you  were  converted  and  began  the 
Christian  Hfe? 

3.  In  either  case,  have  you  had  times  or  experiences 
of  personal  co?nmitment,  re-decision  or  reconsecration  of 
your  life  to  Christ?  If  so,  how  often  and  at  about  what 
age? 

43 


NEW   PROGRAM   OF  RELIGIOUS   EDUCATION 

These  questions  are  shaped  to  bring  the  issue  sharply 
between  entering  upon  a  consciously  religious  life  sud- 
denly by  conversion  and  gradually  by  growth.  Also,  to 
indicate  whether  it  is  usual,  no  matter  which  has  been 
the  initial  process,  for  the  individual  to  pass  through 
experiences  of  personal  decision,  commitment,  and  re- 
consecration. 

Those  to  whom  the  questions  were  given  were  persons 
markedly  interested  in  religion,  and  who  presumably 
had  a  religious  consciousness  and  experience  of  clear 
and  definite  sort.  Nearly  half  of  them  were  ministers 
and  seminary  students  preparing  for  the  ministry.  The 
remainder  were  church-school  teachers  taking  work  in 
training  classes,  and  university  students  in  departments 
of  religious  education  preparing  for  special  lines  of  reli- 
gious service.  Care  was  taken  to  make  sure  that  all 
thoroughly  understood  exactly  what  was  meant  by  each 
question.  To  encourage  full  and  frank  statements  no 
names  were  to  be  signed  to  the  answers. 

About  forty-five  per  cent  of  the  entire  number  an- 
swered that  they  had  experienced  definite  conversion. 
About  fifty-five  said  that  they  could  fix  no  time  or 
place  of  conversion,  but  from  their  earliest  recollection 
had  counted  themselves  as  Christians,  having  been 
brought  up  in  Christian  homes  and  under  religious  in- 
struction. Nearly  all  of  both  groups  testified  to  passing 
through  from  one  to  several  times  of  personal  decision 
or  afl&rmation,  or  of  special  consecration  or  definite  re- 
commitment to  the  Christian  life.  The  method  of 
entering  upon  the  religious  experience,  whether  by  con- 
version or  by  the  normal  growth  process  seemed  to  make 
no  dijfference  on  this  point,  thus  indicating  that  such 
personal  affirmation  or  re-commitment  experiences  are 
normal  and  to  be  expected. 

44 


RELIGION  THROUGH  EDUCATION 

Of  course,  the  significance  of  these  answers  does  not 
lie  in  the  particular  percentages  belonging  to  each  group. 
This  will  vary  among  different  groups.^  The  point  in 
question  was  whether  it  is  possible  for  normal,  average 
persons  to  develop  a  vital  religious  consciousness  and  a 
sufficient  belief  in  and  concern  for  religion  to  be  willing 
to  enter  definitely  into  its  service  without  having  passed 
through  the  experience  called  conversion.  Another  form 
of  the  question  is  whether  it  is  possible  so  to  train,  in- 
struct, and  nurture  a  child  in  religion  that  he  will  de- 
velop a  strong,  fine  Christian  character,  never  having 
known  estrangement  from  God  nor  having  to  be  re- 
claimed from  a  Hfe  of  spiritual  hostility  or  indifference. 
The  indisputable  reply  to  these  questions  is  Yes.  It  is 
beyond  question  true  that  a  full,  rich,  vital  religious 
consciousness  can  be  developed  by  a  process  of  normal 
growth  without  the  necessity  of  conversion  or  any  emo- 
tional upheaval?  Experience  proves  that  religion  can  be 
taught — not  the  experience  alone  of  the  few  hundreds  of 
persons  concerned  in  this  inquiry,  but  the  experience 
also  of  many  of  the  world's  brightest  lights  of  Christian 
leadership,  together  with  that  of  hosts  of  their  followers. 
None  may  doubt  that  the  grace  of  God  is  able  to  save  a 
soul  through  conversion;  and  none  may  doubt  either 
that  it  is  able  to  save  that  soul  from  the  need  for  con- 
version (that  is,  of  reclamation)!  To  have  to  reclaim 
by  conversion  a  soul  that  should  never  have  known 
separation  from  the  divine  is  the  supreme  tragedy. 

THE   TESTIMONY   OF   PSYCHOLOGY 

Psychology  joins  with  common  sense  and  with  mod- 


•  Compare  the  well-known  studies  of  Starbuck  and  Coe. 

'  Conversion  throughout  this  discussion  is  used  to  mean  a  reclamation  and  the 
turning  from  a  life  of  spiritual  indifference  or  rebellion  to  a  life  of  conscious  and 
purposed  harmony  with  God.  Acts  of  re-ccnsecration,  re-decision  or  re-ajirmolion 
arc  nut  called  conversion,  and  should  not  be. 

45 


NEW   PROGRAM   OF   RELIGIOUS   EDUCATION 

em  theology  in  not  imputing  to  the  child  any  inherited 
load  of  guilt  bound  to  him  as  a  child  of  Adam.  Indeed 
psychology  is  not  concerned  about  "original  sin,"  but 
about  original  nature. 

Let  us  take  the  point  of  view  of  the  psychologist  and 
consider  the  nature  and  tendencies  of  the  child.  The 
child  is  the  product  and  culmination  of  an  age-long 
evolution,  he  bears  the  impress  of  a  limitless  past.  The 
blood  of  a  million  generations  flows  through  his  veins 
and  the  deeds  of  countless  ages  of  Ufe  stir  in  his  brain. 
He  is  the  product  of  myriad  centuries  of  conflict  and 
battle.  And  nature  has  garnered  up  the  fruits  of  all 
these  racial  experiences  through  which  every  new  being 
bom  into  the  world  has  come,  and  handed  them  on  to 
this  child  in  the  form  of  instincts,  impulses,  and  various 
forms  of  innate  tendencies. 

These  native  tendencies  form  the  great  basic  "drives" 
of  human  nature.  They  are  the  starting  point  for  most 
lines  of  action  possessed  in  common  by  the  race.  Most 
of  these  instinctive  drives  were  at  one  stage  of  the 
racial  past  necessary  and  good.  Possibly  some  of  them 
were  always  bad.  Not  all  that  were  once  necessary  and 
good  are  so  in  this  day  of  civilization,  though  most, 
perhaps  all,  instincts  and  impulses  play  some  good  part 
in  the  child's  development  or  in  his  later  life.  Even 
these  that  are  now  good,  however,  can  be  made  evil  of 
by  wrong  use  or  overindulgence. 

Thus  it  comes  about  that  the  child's  original  nature 
supplies  him  with  an  equipment  of  tendencies  and  pow- 
ers which  form  the  groundwork  of  his  life  but  which 
need  direction.  Some  of  these  instinctive  tendencies 
need  to  be  encouraged,  trained,  educated,  set  at  work  as 
motivating  forces  back  of  action,  conduct,  achievement, 
and  character.    Others  of  them  need  to  be  suppressed 

46 


RELIGION  THROUGH  EDUCATION 

altogether,  or  at  least  held  strictly  in  check  by  being 
balanced  by  others  of  an  oppK)site  kind. 

The  child's  heritage  from  the  past  of  his  race,  his 
original  nature,  the  psychologist  would  call  it,  gives  him, 
therefore,  almost  limitless  capacities  both  for  good  and 
for  evil.  He  comes  into  the  world  a  child  of  Gkxl;  he 
has  committed  no  wrong,  his  moral  record  is  clear.  But 
he  has  had  planted  in  his  nature  seeds  which,  if  allowed 
to  grow  and  bear  fruit,  will  yield  a  harvest  of  sin  and 
evil.  In  that  case  he  will  ultimately  need  conversion  to 
cleanse  his  soul  of  this  spiritual  harvest  of  evil.  On  the 
other  hand  he  has  other  seeds  planted  in  his  nature 
which,  if  carefully  nurtured  from  the  first  and  brought 
to  fruition,  will  crowd  out  or  keep  down  the  seeds  of 
evil  and  will  bear  a  harvest  of  spiritual  good-will  and 
responsiveness  to  God  and  fellow  man.  In  this  case  no 
conversion  will  he  required,  for  there  will  be  no  growth 
of  spiritual  coldness  or  rebellion  or  purposed  evil  from 
which  to  be  reclaimed. 

It  is  not  only  possible,  therefore,  but  entirely  natural 
for  the  child  to  grow  gradually  into  a  full  religious  ex- 
perience. It  is  the  great  business  of  education,  of  reli- 
gious education,  to  see  that  he  does  this  very  thing.  For 
this  is  by  far  the  best  and  the  safest  way. 

Attaining  religion  through  the  processes  of  growth 
and  development,  that  is,  through  response  to  religious 
nurture  and  training  during  childhood  and  youth,  is 
the  best  way  for  many  reasons.  First  of  all,  this  is  the 
only  method  by  which  religious  ideals,  habits,  and  ac- 
tions can  be  made  so  much  an  integral  part  of  the 
nature  that  they  become  second  nature,  no  more  to  be 
put  off  or  laid  aside  in  times  of  stress  or  temptation 
than  personality  itself.  It  is  a  well-known  biological 
law  that  only  the  constants  in  an  environment,  those 

47 


NEW   PROGRAM   OF   RELIGIOUS   EDUCATION 

factors  that  are  continuous  in  their  contact  with  the 
organism,  are  able  to  modify  organic  structure  and 
function.  Those  factors  that  are  only  occasional  or 
intermittent,  that  appear  only  temporarily  at  certain 
stages  in  the  hfe  history  of  the  individual,  produce  no 
fundamental  and  lasting  change. 

The  same  principle  holds  in  the  spiritual  realm.  It  is 
those  influences  that  enter  the  life  early  and  that  are 
constant  in  their  pressure  on  the  expanding  soul  that 
are  able  profoundly  to  determine  its  quality  and  shape 
the  course  of  its  development.  Only  as  religious  con- 
cepts are  built  in  with  the  growing  body  of  the  child's 
general  fund  of  knowledge  and  thought  will  they  be- 
come a  part  of  his  mental  structure  and  be  a  dependable 
factor  in  shaping  decision  and  action.  Only  as  religious 
feeling  and  appreciation  develop  along  with  other  phases 
of  feeling  and  appreciation  will  they  operate  normally 
as  a  part  of  the  motive  forces  of  the  life.  Only  as  reli- 
gious acts  and  deeds  become  a  part  of  the  general 
structure  of  habits  by  being  interwoven  with  them  as 
they  grow  and  strengthen  from  earliest  childhood  will 
religion  become  an  integral  part  of  daily  life  and  ex- 
perience. 

Not  without  cause  is  the  church  concerned  over  the 
tendency  of  its  members  to  make  religion  a  formal, 
incidental  matter — a  something  added  on  as  a  supple- 
ment or  afterthought,  rather  than  a  something  built  in, 
the  core  of  the  life.  It  is  lamented  that  there  is  so  often 
a  broad  gap  between  profession  and  practice,  between 
creed  and  deed,  between  what  the  head  accepts  and 
the  conduct  expresses.  So  many  persons  have  a  tend- 
ency to  make  their  life  upon  the  plan  of  water-tight 
compartments,  with  religion  in  the  Sunday  compart- 
ment and  pretty  much  left  out  of  all  the  rest  of  the 

48 


RELIGION  THROUGH  EDUCATION 

week.  The  remedy?  There  is  one  simple  formula 
which  will  come  nearer  solving  this  fatal  weakness  in 
our  practice  of  the  Christian  religion  than  any  other: 
Make  religion  an  integral  pari  of  the  child's  education 
throughout  the  whole  period  of  his  plastic  development. 
Build  religious  concepts,  attitudes,  and  habits  into  the 
expanding  life  from  the  first,  so  that  they  may  become  an 
inseparable  part  of  its  structure. 

True,  the  adult  may  become  converted.  His  life  may 
be  transformed  by  the  strange  alchemy  of  divine  power 
working  in  it.  But  no  life  grown  to  maturity  without 
contact  with  religion  can  ever  make  religious  thoughts, 
feelings,  and  actions  as  natural,  inevitable,  and  effective 
a  part  of  his  experience  as  they  would  have  been  had 
they  been  built  into  the  growing  hfe  from  the  first. 
For  such  a  person  religious  concepts  and  values  must 
always  in  some  degree  be  attached  to  an  already  built 
mental  structure,  an  add^ion  that  was  not  in  the  orig- 
inal plan  when  the  structure  was  building.  Introducing 
religion  into  an  adult  life  that  has  never  hwwn  it  is  like 
trying  to  graft  a  new  shoot  on  an  old  stem.  It  can  some- 
times be  done,  but  it  is  never  quite  a  complete  and 
satisfactory  job.  The  old  false  proverb,  "It  is  never  too 
late  to  be  what  you  might  have  been,"  should  be 
changed  to,  "It  is  always  too  late  to  be  what  you  might 
have  been." 

Besides  this  difficulty  there  is  the  permanent  Iosb  of 
those  who  resist  or  escape  all  efforts  at  reclamation  and 
never  develop  religious  interests  or  establish  connec- 
tions with  the  church.  More  than  half  of  the  adults  in 
this  country  to-day  are  without  church  relations  or  any 
practical  interest  in  religion. 

Now,  it  may  be  admitted  at  the  start  that  no  program 
of   religious   education    that   could    be   devised    would 

49 


NEW   PROGRAM   OF   RELIGIOUS   EDUCATION 

wholly  remedy  this  unhappy  situation.  No  system 
planned  and  carried  out  by  human  agencies  can  be 
altogether  efficient.  Yet  it  is  a  much  simpler  and  more 
practicable  thing  to  keep  children  from  going  spiritually 
astray  than  to  win  them  back  once  the  spiritual  bonds 
are  broken  and  the  habits  of  the  life  set  in  another 
direction.  A  little  prevention  is  more  effective  than 
much  cure  in  this  realm.  Who  can  believe  that  if  the 
church  would  devote  itself  fully  and  effectively  to  the 
religious  nurture  and  training  of  childhood  the  next 
generation  would  see  more  than  half  of  these  individuals 
indifferent  to  the  claims  of  religion  and  cold  or  hostile 
to  the  church! 

THE  TESTIMONY  OF  THE  CHURCH  ITSELF 

What  is  the  testimony  of  the  church  itself  as  to  the 
effectiveness  of  education  as  a  method  of  inculcating 
religion?  Or  has  the  church  made  a  sufficient  trial  of 
the  educational  method  to  be  able  to  judge  of  its  re- 
sults?   Most  of  the  Protestant  Church  has  not. 

It  may  be  objected  that  the  church  does  believe  in 
religious  education,  else  why  the  Sunday  school,  which 
is  connected  with  almost  every  church  no  matter  how 
small?  True,  the  church  has  the  Sunday  school,  and  in 
a  moderate  sort  of  way  believes  in  it.  Yet,  as  has  al- 
ready been  said,  the  church  has  used  the  Sunday  school 
chiefly  as  an  evangelistic  and  not  as  an  educational 
agency.  Nor  does  it  believe  in  the  Sunday  school 
enough  to  cause  it  to  make  the  Sunday  school  much 
more  than  an  appendage,  a  minor  supplement  or  ad- 
junct to  what  are  conceived  to  be  the  church's  main 
activities,  namely,  preaching,  worship,  and  evangelism 
for  adult  congregations. 

Another  proof  that  the  church  has  not  believed  deeply 

50 


RELIGION  THROUGH  EDUCATION 

in  religious  education  as  a  fundamental  means  of  culti- 
vating religion  is  the  fact  that  it  has  not  questioned  until 
recently,  and  most  of  the  church  does  not  yet  question, 
whether  the  amount  of  instruction  which  can  be  given 
in  Sunday  school  is  adequate  to  meet  the  needs  of  the 
child.  The  right  of  reUgion  to  a  part  of  the  week-day 
time  or  to  some  time  in  the  vacation  period  is  a  new 
thought  which  the  Protestant  Church  is  just  now  taking 

up. 

There  emerges  in  connection  with  this  point,  however, 
a  most  convincing  and  inspiring  evidence  of  the  value 
of  the  educational  method  in  religion.  This  is  that 
while  the  Sunday  school  is,  as  a  rule,  made  incidental  to 
the  remainder  of  the  church  program,  its  teachers  largely 
untrained,  its  equipment  usually  poor,  its  organization 
and  administration  often  inefficient,  its  method  any- 
thing but  educational  in  the  true  sense  of  the  word, 
even  with  all  this  handicap  the  Sunday  school  is  un- 
doubtedly the  most  fruitful  of  the  church's  present-day 
enterprises  in  the  actual  making  of  Christians  and  the 
grounding  of  moral  characters.  Indeed,  the  church 
owes  a  very  large  proportion  of  its  membership  to  this 
neglected  part  of  its  organization.  What  might  not  the 
church  accomplish  through  such  an  educational  agency 
if  it  would  take  it  seriously  and  make  the  religious  train- 
ing of  children  its  first  concern! 

The  Roman  Catholic  among  all  the  churches  has  been 
the  most  consistent  in  the  use  of  the  educational  method 
in  religion.  So  insistent  is  this  church  that  religion 
shall  be  made  an  integral  part  of  the  education  of  its 
young  that  Catholic  children  arc  withdrawn  in  large 
numbers  from  the  pubUc  schools  and  sent  to  the  schools 
of  the  church,  where  they  are  taught  religion  along  with 
their  geography  and  grammar. 

SI 


NEW  PROGRAM   OF  RELIGIOUS   EDUCATION 

This  statement  is  not  meant  to  approve  the  particular 
type  of  methods  used  by  the  CathoHc  Church;  the  peda- 
gogy it  employs  is  generations  behind  the  best  method 
of  the  day  and  grievously  ineffective.  Nor  is  the  state- 
ment meant  to  approve  the  materials  taught;  many  of 
them  are  utterly  unadapted  both  to  the  learner  and  to 
the  aims  sought.  It  certainly  is  not  meant  to  approve 
the  withdrawal  of  children  from  the  pubhc  schools  in 
order  to  educate  them  in  parochial  schools;  this  is  a 
handicap  to  the  children  and,  if  the  policy  should  be- 
come universal  among  the  churches,  would  be  a  blow 
to  progress  and  a  danger  to  the  republic. 

What  is  meant  to  be  pointed  out  is  that  the  Cathohc 
Church,  in  spite  of  its  inefficiency  in  the  use  of  the  edu- 
cational method,  nevertheless  makes  that  method  work. 
For  who  believes  that,  did  the  Catholic  Church  depend 
on  the  method  of  adult  evangelism  to  win  adherents  to 
its  faith  and  membership,  it  could  attract  any  large 
number  to  a  theology  so  out  of  accord  with  the  spirit 
of  modern  times,  to  a  church  autocracy  whose  head 
resides  in  a  distant  country  and  whose  policy  runs  coun- 
ter to  the  genius  of  democracy,  or  to  a  religious  organi- 
zation so  out  of  harmony  with  American  ideals  and  the 
temper  of  the  times!  Let  the  Cathohc  Church  in  the 
United  States  educate  its  young  in  rehgious  matters  as 
carelessly  as  the  average  Protestant  church  and  it  would 
break  down  in  a  generation.  The  leaders  of  the  Cath- 
olic Church  know  this,  hence  their  zeal  for  rehgious 
education.  Would  that  all  Protestant  churches  were  as 
wise  in  the  matter  of  pohcy!  Let  the  Protestant 
churches  of  this  country  adopt  the  policy  of  the  Cath- 
olic Church  as  to  the  stress  to  be  placed  on  religious 
education  in  the  promotion  of  religion,  using  at  the 
same  time  the  better  educational  method  available  to 

52 


RELIGION  THROUGH  EDUCATION 

the  churches,  and  there  is  no  reasonable  objective  that 
could  not  be  reached  in  the  field  of  religious  achieve- 
ment. 

Religion  can  be  attained  by  the  processes  of  gradual 
growth  and  unfoldment  in  the  life  of  an  individual. 
This  is  abundantly  proved  in  the  experience  of  many 
persons  of  the  finest  spiritual  qualities.  The  developing 
life  can  be  saved  by  careful  nurture  and  training,  that 
is,  by  proper  education  in  religion,  from  drifting  into 
spiritual  coldness,  indifference  or  rebellion.  This  proc- 
ess of  religious  development,  while  it  does  not  deny 
the  possibility  of  reclamatory  conversion,  is  the  safer, 
more  natural  and  fruitful,  and  the  one  which  should 
above  all  others  first  be  sought  by  those  agencies  which 
have  responsibility  for  the  religious  welfare  of  the 
children  and  youth — the  home,  the  church  school,  the 
church. 


53 


CHAPTER  V 
RELIGION  THROUGH  EVANGELISM 

Certain  fundamental  distinctions  between  the  edu- 
cational and  the  evangelistic  program  in  religion  have 
already  been  discussed  (Chapter  II).  While  they  differ 
widely  in  their  methods,  the  most  fundamental  differ- 
ence between  these  two  programs  is  in  the  presupposi- 
tions from  which  they  start  and  in  the  immediate  ends 
sought. 

The  educational  method  presupposes  a  child  at  the 
start  nonmoral  and  nonreligious,  capable  of  being  made 
by  environment  and  education  either  immoral  or  moral, 
either  irreligious  or  religious.  The  evangelistic  method 
presupposes  that  whatever  may  be  the  child's  original 
status,  it  is  necessary  ultimately  for  him  to  pass  through 
a  process  of  conversion,  before  he  can  enter  fully  into 
the  kingdom. 

Naturally  the  radically  different  presuppositions  lead 
to  the  seeking  of  different  ends  as  the  immediate  goals 
of  effort.  The  educational  method  aims  primarily  at 
conserving,  the  evangelistic  method  at  reclaiming.  The 
procedure  by  which  each  of  these  ends  is  to  be  attained 
determines  the  program  to  be  followed  under  each 
system. 

HOW  THE  CHURCH  CAME  BY  THE  EVANGELISTIC  METHOD 

From  one  point  of  view  it  is  incomprehensible  how 
so  large  a  proportion  of  the  Protestant  Church  came  to 
stress  evangelistic  work  for  adults  ahead  of  educational 
work  for  children.  From  another  point  of  view  the 
reason  for  this  placing  of  emphasis  is  entirely  clear. 

54 


RELIGION  THROUGH  EVANGELISM 

The  Protestant  Church  came  into  existence  as  a  pro- 
test against  spiritual  deadness,  moral  corruption,  and 
the  decay  of  religion.  Formalism,  pretense,  and  chi- 
canery ruled  and  had  long  ruled  in  the  church.  Per- 
sonal religious  experience,  direct  responsibility  of  an 
individual  to  God,  and  ethical  dynamic  coming  from  a 
living  faith  were  practically  unknown.  The  body  of 
Christianity  was  still  alive  but  its  soul  was  dead. 

Naturally,  the  leaders  of  the  new  church  saw  the 
necessity  of  changing  this  situation  if  Christianity  was 
to  be  saved.  Men  must  be  called  to  repentance  and  led 
to  seek  regeneration  of  corrupt  lives.  The  power  of 
the  Spirit  to  bring  back  to  life  the  spiritually  dead  must 
be  proved.  The  transforming  pK)wer  of  a  vital  faith 
must  be  put  to  the  test.  Men  and  women  must  be 
converted,  hence  religious  revivals  were  needed.  The 
Wesleys,  Whitefield,  and  other  great  evangelists  later 
took  the  field  and  did  a  marvelous  work.  New  life 
came  back  into  the  church,  religion  again  became  a 
living  spirit  and  power,  righteous  living  once  more 
became  the  true  expression  of  Christianity. 

For  the  Protestant  Church  of  that  day  the  problem 
was,  first  of  all,  a  problem  of  reaching  the  adults  and 
introducing  them  to  a  living  religion.  In  their  spiritual 
deadness  they  had  to  be  compelled,  persuaded,  driven 
into  the  kingdom  of  a  new  experience.  The  evangelistic 
method  was  probably  the  best  way,  possibly  the  only 
way  of  accomplishing  that  result. 

Nor  is  the  attitude  of  the  church  of  that  day  with 
reference  to  the  method  to  use  with  the  children  hard 
to  understand  once  we  grant  the  theology  that  then 
ruled  with  reference  to  the  child's  status.  For  if  the 
child  is  out  of  harmony  with  God  by  the  very  fact  of 
his  existence  until  by  a  supreme  and  cyclonic  spiritual 

55 


NEW   PROGRAM   OF   RELIGIOUS   EDUCATION 

upheaval  he  struggles  free  from  the  trammels  of  an  evil 
nature  inherited  from  Adam;  and  if,  once  this  cyclonic 
experience  of  conversion  has  been  accomplished  the 
child  is  sufficiently  "saved,"  then  manifestly  reclama- 
tion is  the  great  need  and  the  entire  program  of  the 
church  must  be  planned  to  that  end. 

The  doctrine  of  hereditary  guilt,  based  on  the  assump- 
tion that  Adam  was  literally  the  head  of  the  human  race, 
that  his  acts  were  the  acts  of  the  race,  and  that  in  his 
sin  all  posterity  sinned,  was  first  brought  into  Christian 
theology  in  the  fifth  century  by  Augustine.  He  says, 
"The  infant  who  is  lost  is  punished  because  he  belongs 
to  the  mass  of  perdition  and  as  a  child  of  Adam  is  justly 
condemned."  Calvin  adopted  and  developed  these 
views,  and  in  the  Reformation  they  passed  over  into 
English  theology.  Calvin  taught  concerning  the  status 
of  children:  "They  bring  condemnation  with  them  from 
their  mother's  womb — They  are  odious  and  abominable 
to  God."  This  view  was  incorporated  in  the  West- 
minster Confession  and  in  practically  all  the  other  Con- 
fessions of  the  period  of  reconstruction. 

Wesley  took  the  position  that  children  are  "members 
of  the  kingdom"  and  that  such  "membership  assumes 
regeneration."  Following  the  lead  of  its  founder,  the 
Methodist  Church  has  continuously  committed  itself  to 
this  view  of  the  child's  status,  the  latest  statement 
being  a  reiteration  of  the  position  by  the  General  Con- 
ference of  1920. 

Other  religious  bodies,  under  the  influence  of  a  more 
humane  outlook  upon  life,  the  acceptance  of  the  doc- 
trine of  evolution,  and  a  clearer  sense  of  the  Fatherhood 
of  God,  have  softened  their  stem  theologies  on  this 
point  to^  ,the  extent  that  the  old  doctrine  of  "original 
8in"  andf"natural  depravity"  has  lost  much  of  its  sway. 

56 


RELIGION  THROUGH  EVANGELISM 

Its  effects  are  yet  being  felt,  however,  in  the  program 
of  the  church,  whatever  may  be  its  theology.  Even  in 
the  Methodist  Church,  one  of  the  most  clearly  out- 
spoken of  all  on  the  question  of  the  child  being  at  the 
beginning  right  with  God,  the  central  program  of  ac- 
tivities has  subordinated  the  conservation  of  the  child  to 
the  reclamation  of  adults. 

No  doubt  one  important  reason  for  the  relatively 
great  emphasis  placed  on  adult  evangelism  is  that  this 
is  in  a  sense  the  most  obvious  and  the  easiest  method. 
The  results  by  this  method  are  more  immediate  and 
striking.  The  educational  process  works  slowly.  Char- 
acter, morality,  and  the  realization  of  spiritual  ideals 
come  but  gradually,  and  without  special  emotional 
exhilaration  or  excitement.  It  is  in  human  nature  to 
respond  to  the  striking,  the  cataclysmic,  the  sudden. 
A  cloudburst  excites  wonder  and  awe,  but  the  gradual 
drawing  of  the  water  which  fell  in  the  storm  up  from  the 
earth  by  the  steady,  quiet  power  of  the  sun  goes  on 
without  attracting  our  notice.  A  thousand  converts 
"hitting  the  sawdust  trail"  will  cause  much  more  thrill 
and  comment  than  ten  thousand  children  advancing 
quietly  Une  upon  Hne  and  precept  upon  precept  toward 
enlightened  Christian  character  and  attainment. 

Furthermore,  evangelistic  campaigns  come  cheaper 
financially  than  educational  programs.  It  costs  less  to 
finance  an  evangelistic  campaign  lasting  a  few  weeks, 
even  with  a  modern  high-salaried  evangelist,  than  an 
educational  program  running  for  a  dozen  years.  It 
costs  less  not  only  in  money,  but  in  thought,  in  planning, 
in  effort,  in  study,  and  in  day-by-day  oversight  and 
guidance.  The  evangelistic  way  is  therefore  the  easy 
way,  the  cheap  way.  If  it  would  work  as  efficiently  as 
the  educational  way,  it  would  be  the  best  way  just 

57 


NEW   PROGRAM   OF   RELIGIOUS   EDUCATION 

because  it  is  the  simpler,  the  easier,  and  the  cheaper. 
The  difficulty  is  that  it  does  not  work  as  a  substitute 
for  the  longer  drawn  out,  slower,  less  sensational  but 
altogether  more  effective  educational  process  in  religion. 

THE  EVANGELISTIC  METHOD  HAS  AN   IMPORTANT 
PLACE 

There  is,  nevertheless,  a  very  definite  place  for  evan- 
gelism and  the  evangelistic  method  in  the  program  of 
the  church.  Great  numbers  of  men  and  women  need 
to  be  converted — are  being  converted  under  the  evan- 
gelistic program  of  the  church.  None  who  have  been 
fair  and  impartial  observers  of  the  work  of  reaching 
indifferent  or  irreligious  persons  through  the  agencies 
commonly  employed  in  evangelistic  effort  have  failed  to 
be  convinced  that  human  lives  are  often  regenerated 
and  transformed  by  something  that  happens  to  them  in 
connection  with  conversion  and  its  consequences.  The 
fruits  of  this  regeneration  and  transformation  are  seen 
in  changed  morals,  new  objectives,  and  in  inner  sense 
of  harmony  with  a  divine  power  and  plan.  The  church 
should  carry  on  a  large  program  of  this  spiritual  recla- 
mation. 

Yet  it  must  be  conceded  that  every  reclamatory  con- 
version is  evidence  of  a  failure  and  a  spiritual  tragedy. 
Dante  says  a  tragedy  is  "a  bad  ending  of  a  good  be- 
ginning." Each  of  these  spiritually  reclaimed  ones 
over  whose  conversion  we  rejoice  had  a  good  beginning; 
he  was  at  one  time  right  with  God,  standing  at  the 
entrance  of  two  paths,  one  of  which  leads  to  an  in- 
creasingly broadening  and  deepening  sense  of  relation- 
ship with  God,  the  other  of  which  leads  away  from  the 
consciousness  of  religious  values  and  to  the  necessity  of 
a  special  act  of  divine  power  and  grace  to  bring  the 

58 


RELIGION  THROUGH  EVANGELISM 

individual  back  to  a  recognition  of  spiritual  things. 
Let  us  repeat,  there  is  no  greater  tragedy  than  the  need 
to  reclaim  a  soul  that  should  not  have  been  allowed  to 
go  astray. 

Evangelism  is  therefore  essentially  a  method  for 
adults — for  those  who,  either  from  lack  of  religious 
nurture  and  training  in  childhood  or  from  some  combi- 
nation of  circumstances  have  failed  to  respond  to  reli- 
gious influences  and  have  grown  up  to  years  of  conscious 
self-direction  ignorant  of  these  things,  indifferent  to 
them,  or  in  a  state  of  spiritual  disaffection.  Evangelism 
should  be  a  supplement  to  the  method  of  religious  edu- 
cation. It  should  seek,  on  the  one  hand,  to  reclaim 
those  who,  because  of  failure  in  the  religious  educational 
system  or  because  of  failure  o  f  the  child  to  respond  to  it, 
drift  away  from  the  church  and  spiritual  interests.  It 
should  seek,  on  the  other  hand,  to  reclaim  all  possible 
of  those  who  have  had  no  opportunity  at  religious  edu- 
cation and  so  are  naturally  indifferent  and  ignorant  in 
religious  matters.  The  real  work  of  evangelism  should 
be  to  "mop  up"  after  religious  education,  gathering  in 
all  possible  of  those  whom  it  has  missed. 

But  in  no  case  should  the  church  neglect  its  educa- 
tional program  for  its  evangelistic.  Conservation  of 
childhood  should  never  give  way  to  reclamation  of 
adults.  A  child  kept  in  the  "way"  is  better  than  a 
grown  person  returned  to  that  "way."  Furthermore, 
the  more  effective  the  program  of  religious  education  is 
made  the  less  will  be  the  need  for  reclamation. 

RESULTS  OF  THE   EVANGELISTIC  PROGRAM 

Certain  undesirable  results  are  bound  to  follow  from 
the  evangelistic  system,  especially  if  it  is  not  combined 

59 


NEW   PROGRAM   OF   RELIGIOUS   EDUCATION 

with  a  definite  system  of  religious  education.  One  of 
these  is  an  unintelligent,  untrained  church  constituency, 
ignorant  of  the  Bible  and  of  the  great  fundamentals  of 
religious  thought  and  faith.  Another  is  the  inevitable 
and  perfectly  natural  tendency  of  the  untrained  convert 
to  "fall  from  grace,"  to  "backslide,"  and  to  require  to  be 
reconverted. 

One  who  has  lived  a  life  of  spiritual  neutrality  or  hos- 
tility may  be  challenged,  convicted  of  sin,  brought  to 
repentance  and  conversion.  This  has  occurred  tens  of 
thousands  of  times.  A  new  set  of  motives,  new  goals  of 
ambition,  new  ideals  of  conduct  are  set  up.  The  things 
that  were  loved  are  now  hated  and  the  things  that  were 
hated  are  now  loved.  The  new  convert  joins  the  church, 
receives  the  joyful  welcome  of  preacher  and  congrega- 
tion, and  is  now  one  of  the  elect  in  a  very  real  and  true 
sense.  And  yet  .  .  .  The  man  who  was  before  ig- 
norant of  the  Bible  is  ignorant  of  it  still;  he  who  was 
unfamiliar  with  the  simple  but  potent  message  of  Jesus 
is  ignorant  of  it  still.  He  who  has  lacked  a  knowledge 
of  the  great  characters  of  the  Bible  and  of  the  church 
is  ignorant  still.  He  who  was  a  religious  illiterate  is 
illiterate  still. 

Conversion  may  reconstruct  the  motive  forces  of  life 
and  reorganize  its  powers,  but  it  does  not  supply  the 
fundamental  knowledge,  intelligence,  and  information 
upon  which  alone  true  Christianity  can  be  built. 

So  the  church  that  has  any  vision  or  sense  of  obliga- 
tion is  inevitably  committed  to  the  education  of  its 
constituency  even  if  it  depends  primarily  on  the  method 
of  evangelistic  reclamation  for  its  members.  If  it  does 
not  educate  children  and  youth  in  religious  matters,  it 
will  in  the  end  be  obliged  to  educate  tliese  same  persons 
after,  older  grown,  they  are  reclaimed  by  conversion. 

60 


RELIGION  THROUGH  EVANGELISM 

And  they  educate  more  easily  and  naturally  by  far  if  it 
is  done  in  the  earlier  years. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  however,  the  church  usually  does 
not  educate  its  converts  any  more  than  it  does  its  chil- 
dren; perhaps  not  so  much.  Seeming  to  assume  that 
the  great  thing  needful  is  accomplished  when  the  new 
convert  is  able  to  testify  to  a  conscious  acceptance  by 
the  Divine,  the  church  is  all  too  prone  to  open  the  doors 
of  membership,  enter  the  new  name  on  the  church  roll, 
and  call  the  whole  matter  closed.  The  result  is  an  un- 
intelligent, confused  Christian  whose  emotional  exalta- 
tion soon  passes  away  and  who,  lacking  the  great  basic 
religious  concepts  that  can  develop  only  by  the  slow 
process  of  teaching  and  learning,  either  becomes  dis- 
couraged, thinks  he  was  mistaken  or  deceived,  and 
drops  the  whole  matter. 

What  a  tragically  large  proportion  of  those  who  have 
embraced  the  Christian  life  under  the  influence  of  an 
evangehstic  appeal  soon  fall  away  into  a  state  of  indif- 
ference! In  such  cases  the  seed  falls  on  ready  soil  and 
springs  up  quickly,  but  the  soil  is  not  rich  and  deep 
through  thorough  cultivation,  hence  the  new  growth 
quickly  dies  down.  Conversion  is  usually  accomplished 
under  high  emotional  tension.  It  is  followed  by  a  feeling 
of  deep  peace,  satisfaction,  and  soul  quiet  or  exaltation. 
The  change  from  the  previous  unrest  and  unhappiness 
is  so  marked  that  the  entire  world  seems  changed.  Life 
can  never  be  the  same  humdrum  thing  again.  The  way 
ahead  glows  with  a  beautifully  radiant  light.  And  thus 
the  new  convert  enters  hopefully,  confidently  on  the 
way. 

But  emotional  heights  (or  depths)  do  not  last.  It  is 
not  in  human  nature  to  live  constantly  on  the  highest 
altitudes  nor  in  the  deepest  valleys.    Tension  tends  to 

6i 


NEW   PROGRAM   OF   RELIGIOUS   EDUCATION 

relax.  Feeling  becomes  less  keen.  The  contrast  be- 
tween the  old  state  and  the  new  grows  less  striking. 
Something  of  the  radiance  expressing  a  glow  of  inner 
feehng  dims  out.  Things  are  settling  back  into  their 
old  perspective.  Life  has  something  of  routine  and 
humdrum  and  commonplace  just  as  it  had  before.  Ques- 
tions begin  to  arise!  Was  I  mistaken,  did  I  only  think 
I  was  converted?  Am  I  of  such  a  nature  that  I  cannot 
"hold  out"?  Am  I  drifting  back?  Am  I  a  Christian 
after  all? 

Some  such  cruel  and  soul-numbing  experience  has 
been  passed  through  by  numberless  persons  who  might, 
by  preparatory  training,  have  been  saved  from  the 
sweating  of  blood  which  the  disillusioning  process  en- 
tails. 

Those  who  have  been  properly  instructed  in  what  it 
means  to  be  a  Christian;  who  have  been  led  to  give 
proper  balance  to  religious  thought,  feeling,  and  action 
from  early  childhood,  and  who  are  not  led  to  stake  their 
entire  religious  certitude  on  the  play  of  a  fluctuating 
emotion  will  escape  such  an  experience  when  the  time 
comes  for  them  to  make  a  personal  acceptance  of  the 
Christian  way  they  have  been  taught.  Nor,  having 
once  made  this  personal  decision,  will  there  be  the 
danger  of  shipwreck  on  the  ground  of  a  changing  mood. 
For  the  person  who  has  a  well-grounded  set  of  religious 
concepts  that  have  grown  up  with  him  from  childhood, 
who  has  a  well-defined  set  of  religious  habits  expressing 
themselves  normally  in  such  acts  as  prayer,  worship, 
and  service,  who  is  religiously  intelligent,  is  secure 
against  the  accidents  of  temporary  emotional  changes. 


62 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  CHURCH'S  NEGLECT  OF  RELIGIOUS 
EDUCATION 

The  Protestant  Church  has  never  taken  religious 
education  seriously.  This  seems  a  strange,  an  ungracious, 
even  a  false  thing  to  say  of  a  church  that  has  founded 
schools  and  colleges  by  the  hundred,  that,  indeed,  pre- 
ceded the  state  in  its  support  of  general  education. 
Nevertheless,  it  is  true — the  church  has  never  taken 
religious  education  seriously.  It  has  been  a  great  believer 
in  and  promoter  of  general  education  but  not  of  religious 
education.  The  proofs  of  this  proposition  form  the  con- 
tent of  the  present  chapter, 

HOW  THE   SUNDAY   SCHOOL  CAME   TO  THE  CHURCH 

It  is  strikingly  true  in  the  history  of  human  institutions 
that  progressive  movements  and  reforms  often  come 
from  other  sources  than  those  where  we  should  naturally 
turn  for  leadership.  This  has  been  true  for  the  church, 
some  of  whose  most  important  movements  have  orig- 
inated entirely  outside  the  professional  and  official  group 
commissioned  by  the  church  to  guide  its  destinies. 

Robert  Raikes  is  credited  with  the  initiation  of  the 
Sunday  school.  Robert  Raikes  was  an  Enghsh  manu- 
facturer and  merchant.  He  possessed  no  great  learning; 
certainly,  he  was  no  theologian.  A  member  of  the  Church 
of  England  in  a  time  when  the  state  had  not  yet  taken 
responsibility  for  general  education,  Raikes  was  im- 
pressed with  the  ignorance,  the  vice,  and  the  squalor  of 
the  children  of  the  poor  in  Gloucester,  England.  They 
were  illiterate,  profane,  dirty,  ragged,  ill-mannered,  im- 
moral. 

63 


NEW   PROGRAM   OF  RELIGIOUS   EDUCATION 

Free  schools  did  not  exist,  and  their  parents  were 
unable  to  pay  tuition  for  their  education,  even  had  they 
been  interested  enough  in  education  to  do  so.  Social 
outcasts,  neglected  by  state  and  church,  ignored  by 
society,  they  were  a  reproach  to  the  civilization  of  their 
day.  Robert  Raikes  said  they  must  be  taught — taught 
religion  and  the  rudiments  of  education.  So  he  hired 
teachers,  and  paid  them  a  shilling  or  so  a  day  from  his 
own  pocket.  He  secured  the  use  of  a  part  of  the  church 
for  his  classes,  which  met  on  Sunday  for  several  hours. 
The  children  were  taught  personal  cleanliness,  good 
manners,  reading,  writing,  numbers — and  religion;  a  cur- 
riculum suspiciously  like  the  general  education  program 
with  religion  added. 

At  first  many  of  the  churches  were  opposed  to  this  prof- 
anation of  the  Lord's  Day  and  of  the  church  with  the 
teaching  of  the  children.  The  Archbishop  of  Canterbury 
thundered  against  this  new  movement.  Many  of  the 
churches  closed  their  doors  to  it.  But  the  movement  had 
Ufe,  so  it  grew  in  spite  of  opposition;  first  despised,  then 
tolerated,  at  last  adopted  by  the  church  which  had  not 
the  vision  to  inaugurate  the  movement  itself.  As  pro- 
vision was  made  for  the  free  general  education  of  children 
in  England  the  secular  subjects  were  dropped  from  the 
Sunday  school  curriculum  and  its  aims  centered  on  re- 
ligion; though  to  this  day  the  Sunday  school  movement 
in  the  Church  of  England  has  never  been  quite  popular 
among  the  social  classes.  The  stigma  of  its  lowly  origin 
still  clings  to  it. 

When,  a  century  and  a  quarter  ago,  American  Protes- 
tantism took  up  the  Sunday-school  idea  there  was  far 
from  unanimity  upon  it.  At  first  many  of  the  churches 
opposed  it.  Some  closed  their  doors  to  the  Sunday 
classes,  urging  that  it  was  unfit  that  God's  house  should 

64 


THE  CHURCH'S  NEGLECT 

be  put  to  such  uses.  The  church  was  a  place  for  worship, 
for  prayer,  for  preaching,  and  none  should  profane  the 
the  sacred  edifice  by  bringing  into  it  the  teaching  of 
children.  Here,  again,  however,  the  forces  for  education 
finally  won  and  the  Sunday  school  about  one  hundred 
years  ago  became  a  recognized  part  of  the  church's 
legitimate  enterprises. 

RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION  LOOKED  UPON  AS  INCIDENTAL 

During  no  period  of  its  history,  however,  has  the  Sun- 
day school  been  looked  upon  by  those  in  control  of  the 
church  as  a  major  enterprise.  In  making  up  the  program 
of  the  church  as  a  whole,  or  the  program  of  an  individual 
unit,  religious  education  of  children  has  been  planned  for 
and  provided  for  only  after  other  interests  had  been  taken 
care  of. 

There  have  been  many  worthy  projects  plaimed  and 
carried  out  by  the  church.  There  have  been  great  mis- 
sionary campaigns  which  brought  splendidly  to  the  con- 
sciousness and  the  conscience  of  the  church  the  needs  of 
the  less  fortunate  in  this  and  other  lands.  There  have 
been  great  campaigns  for  group  and  personal  evangelism 
which  have  netted  many  souls  reclaimed.  There  have 
been  educational  campaigns,  seeking  moral  and  monetary 
support  for  church  colleges  and  other  secular  schools  of 
the  church.  There  have  been  great  financial  campaigns 
netting  scores  of  millions  of  dollars  for  the  church  to  ex- 
pend on  its  excellent  enterprises.  Now,  all  of  these  are 
worthy  projects  and  most  of  them  were  well  carried  out. 
There  is  no  disposition  on  our  part  to  criticize  or  do  any- 
thing but  admire  and  approve  this  splendid  work.  But 
the  question  still  remains,  just  when  did  the  church  have  a 
great  campaign  for  tlte  promotion  of  the  cause  of  religious 
education? 

65 


NEW   PROGRAM   OF   RELIGIOUS   EDUCATION 

Consider  the  program  of  Sunday  services  of  the  church. 
It  is  built  primarily  around  the  interests  of  adults.  In 
many  churches  the  choicest  hour  of  the  forenoon,  the 
time  most  convenient  for  adults  after  late  rising,  a 
leisurely  breakfast  and  preparation  for  church,  is  taken 
for  the  "regular  service";  the  Sunday  school  coming  at 
the  close  of  the  forenoon,  at  a  time  when  children  on  other 
days  usually  have  dinner  or  lunch  and  when  the  day  has 
lost  for  them  its  best  of  spirits  and  freshness.  True,  in 
some  churches  the  children  are  recently  being  given  a 
more  favorable  hour,  but  the  more  general  practice  is  yet 
to  consult  the  convenience  and  wishes  of  the  adults  first, 
the  children  being  secondary. 

The  advice  is  quite  generally  given  to  parents  by 
church  leaders  that  children  should  be  taken  to  the 
church  preaching  service  in  preference  to  any  other  exer- 
cise of  the  church.  When  the  children  come  to  this 
service  they  find  almost  nothing  they  can  understand, 
little  they  can  intelligently  feel,  and  practically  nothing 
they  can  do  except  to  sit  in  an  agony  of  suppressed 
wriggling  longing  for  the  ending  to  come.  It  is  a  service 
oj  adults,  for  adults  and  by  adults.  Yet  by  strange  con- 
fusion of  thought  there  are  those  who  believe  this  the  best 
way  to  train  the  child  in  religion!  Paul  was  a  preacher 
rather  than  an  educator,  but  he  had  some  well-defined 
notions  about  the  futility  of  forcing  strong  meat  upon 
babes. 

That  the  church  has  had  little  interest  in  the  educa- 
tional method  in  religion  is  seen  in  the  course  prescribed 
for  the  training  of  its  ministers.  They  are,  of  course, 
trained  primarily  as  theologians  and  preachers.  They 
must  have  courses  in  historical  theology,  in  systematic 
theology,  and  in  practical  theology.  They  must  know 
Greek  and  Hebrew  in  order  to  skill  in  biblical  exegesis. 

66 


THE  CHURCH'S  NEGLECT 

They  must  study  the  principles  and  art  of  sermon  struc- 
ture in  order  to  convince,  persuade,  move — adults.  They 
must  master  the  arts  of  speech  in  order  to  smooth  and 
effective  public  utterance.  They  must  train  themselves 
in  the  methods  of  evangelism  in  order  successfully  to  con- 
duct campaigns  for  converts. 

Here,  again,  we  have  a  list  of  things  all  of  which  are 
good.  But  where  does  the  training  of  the  minister  for 
religious  education  come  in?  I  am  aware  that  most  theo- 
logical seminaries  now  offer  a  few  courses  in  religious 
education.  Some  of  them  even  require  some  four  hours 
out  of  about  ninety  demanded  for  the  degree.  Not  a  few 
offer  no  religious  education  work  of  any  kind  nor  take  any 
note  of  its  importance. 

So  it  happens  that  most  ministers  go  out  from  their 
three  years  of  seminary  work  with  little  or  no  training  for 
the  hardest  task  they  will  confront,  for  the  hardest  task 
the  church  confronts.  It  is  easy  enough  for  them  to 
preach  well-organized  sermons  out  of  a  well-stocked  mind 
to  a  congregation  of  well-ordered  adults.  But  in  the 
presence  of  the  children,  with  their  infinitely  greater  needs 
and  their  infinitely  more  difficult  demands,  the  preacher 
is  relatively  helpless.  Nor  is  it  primarily  his  fault.  In  a 
day  of  education  and  of  educational  experts,  a  day  when 
the  church  should  change  its  method  and  its  stress  from 
a  program  primarily  of  preaching  to  adults  to  a  program 
which  provides  first  of  all  for  the  teaching  of  children  in 
religion,  the  church  trains  its  leaders  and  workers  in 
everything  except  the  most  important  and  difficult  thing 
they  have  to  do. 

No  wonder,  therefore,  that  the  average  preacher  feels 
somewhat  helpless  before  a  group  of  children.  No  wonder 
he  watches  with  a  sigh  of  relief  his  "junior  congregation" 
file  out  after  the  ten-minute  sermon  that  was  much 

67 


NEW   PROGRAM   OF  RELIGIOUS   EDUCATION 

harder  to  prepare  than  the  thirty-minute  sermon  that  will 
follow.  No  wonder  that  the  preacher  not  infrequently 
leaves  the  Sunday  school  largely  to  the  superintendent 
and  officers,  concerning  himself  with  it  only  to  see  that  it 
turns  in  fairly  satisfactory  reports  as  to  attendance  and 
collections. 

And  no  wonder  either  that  hundreds  of  young  min- 
isters, awakening  to  the  fact  that  the  chief  problem  of 
their  church  concerns  itself  with  education,  are  crying  out 
against  a  system  that  leaves  them  unprepared  for  the 
greatest  opportunity  and  responsibility  that  rests  upon 
the  church.  The  church  should  make  training  in  re- 
ligious education  one  of  the  chief  lines  in  the  preparation 
of  its  ministers. 

Possibly  the  most  immediately  obvious  evidence  of  the 
church's  failure  to  realize  the  importance  of  religious 
education  is  seen  in  the  architecture  of  its  church  build- 
ings. It  is  evident,  of  course,  that  the  church  structure 
has  been  built  for  adults.  The  central  aspect  is  an 
audience  room,  a  place  for  grown-ups  to  listen  to  preach- 
ing. When  the  adults  have  been  taken  care  of,  there  may 
be  some  Sunday  school  rooms  provided — as  a  supplement 
or  an  afterthought  to  the  main  plan  of  the  building.  But 
even  these  are  usually  highly  insufficient  in  number  and 
capacity,  and  inadequate  for  their  purpose. 

If  the  church  ever  becomes  a  true  teaching  institution, 
centering  its  best  efforts  on  serving  its  children  instead  of 
selfishly  looking  out  for  its  adults;  if  those  of  us  who  are 
in  charge  shall  refuse  to  take  the  best  seats  in  the  syna- 
gogue for  ourselves  regardless  of  the  helpless  little  ones; 
if  we  really  go  at  it  to  set  a  child  in  our  midst  as  the  goal 
of  our  church  effort,  then  the  church  architects  and 
building  committees  will  need  to  study  their  problems 
anew.  When  this  day  comes,  as  please  God  it  will  come 

68 


THE  CHURCH'S  NEGLECT 

before  a  great  while,  these  architects  and  builders  can 
learn  much  by  going  to  the  public  schools  and  studying 
their  architecture.  Here  the  purpose  is  first  of  all  to  pro- 
vide for  teaching,  though  the  assembly  (audience)  room 
is  not  omitted  from  the  scheme.  The  result  is  a  highly 
effective  working  plant  for  the  development  of  the  whole 
b'fe  of  the  pupil. 

The  relative  importance  assigned  religious  education 
of  children  in  the  estimation  of  the  church  may  be  dis- 
covered from  the  distribution  of  funds  in  its  budget.  The 
things  that  people  believe  in  and  care  for  they  are  willing 
to  pay  for;  the  things  they  esteem  of  little  value  or  think 
about  but  little  they  do  not  consider  spending  money  for. 
Willingness  to  supply  economic  support  is  then  one 
practical  test  of  the  interest  and  esteem  in  which  the 
membership  of  the  church  holds  its  various  enterprises. 

Now,  it  is  a  well-known  fact  that  in  general  the  Sunday 
school  is  supported  by  the  pennies  of  the  children  who 
attend.  True,  many  churches  are  coming  to  add  a  small 
amount  annually  to  their  budget  for  the  support  of  the 
Sunday  school,  but  this  is  the  exception  rather  than  the 
rule.  Not  only  is  this  true,  but  the  Sunday  schools  of  one 
denomination  at  least  are  expected  to  pay  an  aggregate 
of  two  hundred  thousand  dollars  a  year  toward  the  sup>- 
port  of  the  board  which  manages  the  Sunday  school 
activities  of  the  denomination.  Sunday  schools  are  poorly 
equipped  in  reference  to  books,  teaching  supplies,  pro- 
fessional libraries  for  teachers,  etc.,  because  the  church 
"cannot  afford  it." 

It  all  comes  down  finally  to  what  the  church  believes  in 
or  wants  to  spend  its  money  for.  A  certain  church  re- 
cently had  a  local  budget  of  over  thirty  thousand  dollars, 
one  thousand  of  which  was  assigned  to  religious  educa- 
tion.  In  this  church  there  was  a  pastor's  assistant  on  a 

69 


NEW   PROGRAM   OF   RELIGIOUS   EDUCATION 

salary  of  three  thousand;  an  office  secretary  on  a  salary 
of  twelve  hundred ;  paid  singers  on  salaries  of  four  thou- 
sand ;  the  support  of  a  city  mission  on  an  expenditure  of 
about  five  thousand.  The  minister  had  a  salary  of  about 
six  thousand.  The  matter  of  a  director  of  religious  educa- 
tion came  up,  but  the  church  "could  not  afford  it."  The 
question  of  week  day  religious  education  for  children  was 
discussed,  but  the  church  "had  no  more  funds  for  re- 
ligious education."  In  this  church  budget  the  adults  were 
willing  to  spend  approximately  thirty  dollars  on  them- 
selves to  one  dollar  Sf>ent  on  the  children  of  the  church 
for  religion.  They  were  willing  to  hire  professional 
singers  to  sing  to  the  adult  congregation  for  fifteen  or 
twenty  minutes  each  Sunday,  paying  them  ninety 
dollars  for  the  service  rendered,  but  could  not  find 
money  to  equip  properly  for  teaching  their  children  nor 
for  paying  for  week-day  teachers  or  directors  for  their 
classes  in  religion.  While  these  figures  and  the  details 
will  vary  from  church  to  church,  the  example  cited  is  so 
nearly  typical  that  it  may,  with  generous  and  increasing 
exceptions,  be  called  characteristic  of  the  church. 

Another  indication  of  the  center  of  emphasis  in  the 
church  is  found  in  the  trend  which  conspicuous  greatness 
among  its  leaders  has  taken.  Greatness  commonly  takes 
the  direction  of  the  most  pressing  social  demand  and  the 
willingness  of  institutions  to  pay  in  honors,  position,  or 
money  for  service  rendered. 

The  church  has  had  great  evangelists,  great  mis- 
sionaries, great  theologians,  great  scholars,  great  artists, 
great  preachers,  great  reformers,  all  willing  to  give  of  their 
talent  or  their  genius  to  the  church  and  making  thereby 
a  great  contribution.  But  where  are  the  great  educators 
in  the  service  of  the  church?  They  have  been  few.  This 
has  not  been  because  great  educators  have  not  been  in- 

70 


THE  CHURCH'S  NEGLECT 

terested  in  religion  and  childhood  and  the  church,  but 
because  the  church  has  not  invited  them,  welcomed  their 
services,  or  made  a  place  for  them.  Hence  it  is  that  now, 
when  the  church  is  beginning  to  realize  the  importance  of 
education  in  religion,  she  has  few  trained  educators  in  her 
service  and  must  perforce  sufifer  the  blind  to  lead  the 
blind  or  else  call  upon  the  ranks  of  secular  education  to 
supply  the  skilled  leadership  her  own  program  has  failed 
to  develop. 

RELIGIOUS   EDUCATION   IN   CHURCH  COLLEGES 

Let  no  one  ascribe  the  church's  lack  of  interest  in 
religious  education  to  a  lack  of  interest  in  education.  The 
church  has  for  centuries,  as  we  have  said,  made  the  pro- 
motion of  education  one  of  its  chief  concerns,  and  its 
schools  constitute  one  of  the  brightest  pages  in  its  history. 
The  earliest  colleges  founded  in  this  country  were  founded 
by  the  church.  Far  more  than  half  of  all  the  higher  insti- 
tutions in  the  United  States  to-day  were  church  founded 
and  many  of  them  still  are,  in  part  at  least,  church  sup- 
ported. The  church-founded  colleges  and  universities 
accommodate  approximately  half  of  those  who  receive 
higher  education  in  this  country. 

Yet,  strange  to  say,  religion  occupies  so  small  a  place 
as  to  be  almost  negligible  in  the  curriculum  of  the  church 
colleges.  In  almost  none  of  them  is  instruction  in  religion 
on  as  secure  a  financial  and  academic  basis  as  mathe- 
matics, science,  philosophy,  or  like  subjects.  The  college 
asks  for  the  support  of  church  people  on  the  ground  of 
the  religious  influence  of  the  school,  but  seems  to  assume 
that  religion  can  be  appropriated  from  the  general  atmos- 
phere and  environment  and  need  not  be  especially 
provided  for  as  a  study  for  the  classrooms.  Indeed,  on 
this  score  there  is  comparatively  little  choice  between  the 

71 


NEW   PROGRAM   OF  RELIGIOUS   EDUCATION 

church  college  and  the  state  institution.  Here  again, 
then,  it  is  evident  that  the  church  does  not  believe 
strongly  in  religious  education,  for  its  own  particular 
schools  set  apart  to  "train  leaders"  teach  almost  every- 
thing excepting  religion. 


72 


CHAPTER  Vn 

IF  THE  CHURCH  SHOULD  ADOPT  AN 
EDUCATIONAL  PROGRAM 

The  writer  recently  came  before  his  class  of  seventy- 
seven  young  ministers  with  the  following  proposition 
which  he  asked  them  to  consider  in  all  its  bearings  and 
determine  whether  or  not  it  is  true:  The  primary  re- 
sponsibiliiy  and  obligation  of  the  church,  standing  above 
all  other  responsibilities  and  obligations  whatsoever,  is  tJie 
religious  education  of  its  childhood  and  youth.  After  full 
and  deliberate  thought  all  but  four  answered  in  the 
affirmative,  thus  committing  the  church  so  far  as  they 
are  concerned  to  the  religious  education  of  the  young 
as  its  primary  function. 

Manifestly,  the  unanimity  of  position  taken  required 
that  another  question  be  asked  these  men.  It  was  put 
to  them  in  this  form :  //  the  foregoing  proposition  is  true, 
what  are  its  implications:  what  should  the  church  do  about 
it? 

This  is  probably  the  most  important  question  con- 
fronting the  Christian  church  to-day.  Here  is  a  church 
which  in  an  era  favorable  for  its  development  and  ex- 
pression has  barely  been  holding  its  own;  no,  let  us  be 
frank;  it  has  been  losing  ground.  Now,  it  is  ofifered  an 
instrument,  proved  in  other  fields  than  the  church, 
which  can  readily  be  adapted  to  the  uses  of  the  church 
and  through  which  it  is  reasonably  certain  that  the 
church  can  recover  lost  ground  and  enter  upon  new 
territory.  This  instrument  is  religious  education.  What 
will  the  church  do  about  it? 

73 


NEW   PROGRAM   OF   RELIGIOUS   EDUCATION 

In  order  to  make  religious  education  its  primary  en- 
terprise in  practice,  great  and  fundamental  changes  will 
have  to  be  made  by  the  church.  These  changes  cannot 
be  made  in  a  day.  Many  of  them  cannot  be  completely 
made  in  a  decade.  But,  under  wise  leadership,  all  the 
changes  can  be  put  under  way  and  developed  as  rapidly 
as  conditions  will  permit. 

AN   EDUCATIONAL  LEADERSHIP 

Fundamental  to  an  educational  program  for  the 
church  is  a  true  educational  leadership.  No  enterprise 
can  succeed  if  managed  by  those  who  are  not  fully  in 
sympathy  with  it,  or  those  who  do  not  understand  its 
fundamental  aims,  or  those  not  equipped  with  the  skill 
of  technique  necessary  to  the  operation  of  the  enter- 
prise. 

Freely  granting  certain  notable  exceptions,  it  may 
fairly  be  asserted  that  the  present  leadership  of  the 
church  is  not  an  educational  leadership.  This  is  said 
without  thought  or  intention  of  criticism  of  present 
leaders,  many  of  whom  have  rendered  service  beyond 
praise  to  the  church.  But  most  of  these  men  have  come 
up  through  another  regime.  To  them  the  great  work  of 
the  church  has  been  to  "preach  the  gospel."  The  pul- 
pit has  been  their  throne,  the  preacher  the  man  called 
of  God  to  the  most  important  work  given  man  to  do  as  a 
colaborer  with  the  Divine,  the  proclaiming  of  glad  tid- 
ings to  lost  souls. 

To  such  men,  themselves  usually  great  and  inspiring 
preachers  and  men  grown  gray  in  the  service  of  this 
great  ideal,  it  is  natural  and  p>erhaps  inevitable  that 
other  phases  of  the  church's  program  should  be  second- 
ary to  preaching.  They  may  believe  in  a  way  in  the 
work  of  the  Sunday  school,  believe  even  in  the  expan- 

74 


IF  THE  CHURCH  SHOULD  ADOPT  A  PROGRAM 

sion  of  the  program  of  Sunday  instruction  to  the  work 
of  week-day  classes  in  religion,  or  to  vacation  church 
day  schools;  but  as  to  making  the  educational  enter- 
prise of  the  church  its  chief  concern,  the  first  thing 
planned  for  in  its  p)olicies,  the  pearl  of  great  price  which 
the  church  should  sell  all  else  to  buy.  .  .  . 

It  is  humanly  impossible  for  most  men  well  past 
middle  life,  as  the  leaders  of  the  church  naturally  are, 
to  make  so  complete  a  reversal  of  brain  paths  as  this 
position  would  require.  They  may  see  the  validity  of 
the  new  program,  they  may  wish  it  well,  they  may 
even  mean  to  give  it  their  support;  but  most  of  them 
will  nevertheless,  unintentionally  or  not,  have  a  back- 
ground of  reservations,  a  set  of  conflicting  ideals  and 
habits  of  mind,  speech  and  action,  which  will  qualify  or 
negate  their  support  of  the  new  project. 

The  control  of  the  church  should  gradually,  but  with- 
out unnecessary  delay,  be  taken  over  by  those  possessed 
of  the  educational  ideal  for  the  church.  Usually,  though 
with  notable  exceptions,  this  will  mean  by  the  younger 
men  who,  in  connection  with  their  training  for  service 
in  the  church  have  given  a  prominent  place  to  the  study 
of  religious  education  and  who  understand  both  its  pos- 
sibilities and  its  limitations.  Such  men  will,  of  course, 
know  religious  educational  method.  They  will  under- 
stand its  problems  and  principles  of  organization  and 
administration.  They  will  know  how  so  to  plan  the 
program  of  the  church  that  the  religious  nurture  and 
training  of  children  shall  become  its  primary  concern, 
without  at  the  same  time  neglecting  the  other  enter- 
prises of  the  church. 

It  goes  without  saying  that  these  religious  educa- 
tional leaders  will  have  to  be  developed  and  trained. 
The  church  has  now  relatively  few  men  who  by  training, 

75 


NEW   PROGRAM   OF  RELIGIOUS   EDUCATION 

conviction,  and  experience  are  able  to  assume  leader- 
ship such  as  that  required  in  this  new  field.  But  the 
number  qualified  to  do  this  is  increasing.  Prospective 
ministers  in  the  theological  schools  are  not  only  gladly 
taking  the  required  courses  in  religious  education,  but 
many  of  them  are  electing  as  freely  as  their  require- 
ments will  permit  the  courses  in  religious  education  and 
general  education  from  adjoining  university  depart- 
ments. These  men  are  in  earnest;  they  see  the  great 
opportunity  before  them  to  serve  the  church  and  the 
cause  of  religion,  and  the  next  decade  will  witness  num- 
bers of  them  beginning  to  forge  ahead  into  positions  of 
educational  leadership  now  unoccupied  because  none 
are  ready  to  fill  them.  The  success  of  the  church  in  the 
years  that  lie  ahead  will  depend  in  no  small  degree  on 
the  wisdom  and  capacity  for  leadership  manifested  by 
its  ministers  of  education. 

A  NEW  EMPHASIS  IN  THE  TRAINING  OF  ITS 
MINISTRY 

If  the  point  of  view  set  forth  in  the  preceding  section 
is  accepted,  we  are  immediately  led  to  a  second  inevit- 
able conclusion:  The  church  must  change  the  em- 
phasis in  the  training  of  its  ministry.  The  tradition  is 
deeply  grounded  that  the  minister  shall  be  trained  as  a 
theologian  and  a  preacher.  One  young  minister-in- 
training,  puzzled  by  conflicting  claims  for  preeminence 
between  the  evangelistic  and  the  educational  ideal  for 
the  church,  exclaimed,  ''But  surely  our  great  commission 
as  servants  of  the  church  is  to  preach  the  gospel,  is  it 
not?" 

"Not  if  I  understand  the  matter,"  answered  his  in- 
structor.    "I  understand  your  great  commission  to  be 

76 


IF  THE  CHURCH  SHOULD  ADOPT  A  PROGRAM 

that  of  bringing  the  world  to  know  and  follow  the  teach- 
ings and  example  of  Jesus.  If  you  can  do  this  best  by 
preaching,  that  is  your  great  commission.  If  you  can 
do  it  best  by  teaching,  then  that  is  your  great  commis- 
sion." 

Preaching,  like  teaching,  is  a  means  and  not  an  end. 

It  will  not  serve  for  the  schools  supplied  by  the  church 
for  the  training  of  its  ministers  to  admit  half  grudgingly 
a  few  courses  on  religious  education  as  a  concession  to 
the  demands  of  the  times,  allowing  these  to  supplement 
a  broad  and  dominating  requirement  in  theology,  the 
languages,  and  exegesis.  The  door  must  be  thrown  wide 
open  and  without  any  grudging.  If  the  educational 
method  can  be  made  and  should  be  made  the  chief 
instrument  of  the  church  in  gathering,  training,  and 
holding  its  constituency,  then  there  is  no  place  for  half- 
way measures.  The  church  must  acknowledge  this 
method  and  prepare  its  ministers  to  handle  it  success- 
fully. Traim'ng  in  the  principles  and  methods  of  reli- 
gious education  must  not  be  incidental  and  perfunctory, 
something  added  on  to  the  real  and  fundamental  prepara- 
tion for  their  work,  an  important  accessory,  but  still  an 
accessory. 

These  men  must  come  from  their  preparation  not 
only  with  some  knowledge  of  religious  educational 
method,  but  with  the  educational  ideal  prominent  in 
their  minds,  the  educational  viewpoint  dominant  in 
their  thought  and  plans.  Anything  less  than  this  will 
not  serve  if  the  church  sets  out  really  to  take  religious 
education  seriously  as  a  highly  important  function. 

One  of  the  first  requisites  of  the  mim'ster  is  to  be 
grounded  through  his  training  in  the  educational  view- 
point for  religion;  is  to  supply  him  with  an  educational 
atmosphere  in  which  to  get  his  training.    It  is  doubtful 

77 


NEW  PROGRAM   OF  RELIGIOUS   EDUCATION 

whether  this  can  be  done  in  the  average  theological 
seminary  of  the  present  day.  This  is  not  meant  as  a 
criticism  on  the  seminaries,  but  the  fact,  of  course,  is 
that  the  traditions  and  atmosphere  of  the  theological 
schools  do  not  favor  the  educational  method.  They 
have  for  generations  been  of  another  kind,  and  such 
things  caimot  be  changed  offhand  and  at  will. 

Doubtless  some  of  the  schools  of  theology  will  make 
an  honest  efifort  to  meet  the  new  conditions.  There  are 
indications  that  some  are  already  attempting  to  do  so. 
Those  seminaries  that  are  connected  with  universities 
will  effect  the  transformation  with  least  diflSculty,  for 
the  university  departments  of  general  education  and 
religious  education  are  at  hand  to  supply  the  educa- 
tional tone  and  train  to  the  educational  ideal. 

However  the  details  may  be  worked  out,  it  seems 
inevitable  that  the  courses  offered  by  the  church  for 
the  training  of  the  ministers  must  be  still  further  lib- 
eralized in  the  direction  of  practical  training  for  the 
demands  which  the  church  program  of  the  future  must 
of  necessity  put  upon  its  minister.  The  great  problems 
of  the  average  minister  are  no  longer,  as  they  once  were, 
problems  of  theology,  of  exegesis,  of  refined  and  hair- 
splitting exp>osition  of  controversial  problems.  Most 
Christian  churches  of  to-day  are  thoroughly  agreed 
upon  enough  great  fundamentals  to  save  the  world  if 
only  these  fundamentals  could  be  made  effective  in  the 
lives  of  the  people.  The  great  problem  of  the  church  in 
this  age  is  to  make  of  itself  the  effective  instrument  by 
which  the  basic  Christian  truths  can  be  planted  in  the 
minds  and  hearts  of  youth  and  so  cultivated,  nurtured, 
and  guarded  that  they  shall  come  to  fruitage  as  Chris- 
tian character  in  adults. 


78 


IF  THE  CHURCH  SHOULD  ADOPT  A  PROGRAM 

A   MINISTRY   OF  EDUCATION 

For  many  years  the  smaller  churches  will  have  to  be 
content  with  one  minister  to  carry  out  all  functions  of 
the  church.  The  man  who  preaches  the  sermons  and 
acts  as  pastor  will  in  addition  have  to  be  business  man- 
ager, director  of  religious  education,  director  of  recrea- 
tion, and  responsible  for  whatever  additional  program 
the  church  assumes.  This  wide  diversity  of  responsi- 
bility precludes  highly  specialized  training  in  any  par- 
ticular line,  thus  making  the  office  of  the  minister  in 
this  type  of  church  correspond  somewhat  to  that  of 
general  family  practitioner  in  the  field  of  medicine. 

In  larger  and  stronger  churches,  however,  the  time  is 
undoubtedly  coming  when  there  will  be  a  specialized 
ministry  covering  various  lines  of  activity  within  the 
local  church.  Second  to  none  in  this  group  of  min- 
isters should  be  the  minister  of  education.  His  position 
should  be  coordinate  with  that  of  the  minister  of  preach- 
ing. His  general  and  professional  preparation  for  the 
work  should  be  commensurate  with  the  responsibilities 
involved,  which  are  certainly  not  less  than  those  of  the 
pulpit.  The  financial  compensation  should  not  suffer  in 
comparison  with  that  for  the  preaching  minister. 

The  minister  of  education  should,  under  the  educa- 
tional committee  of  the  church,  have  responsibility  for 
the  planning  and  administration  of  the  educational 
program  in  all  of  its  branches  and  divisions.  He  should 
recommend  or  appoint  teachers,  assign  them  to  classes, 
be  responsible  for  the  grading  and  promotion  of  pupils, 
determine  curriculum  requirements,  and  carry  out  all 
other  such  administrative  functions  under  the  general 
oversight  of  the  committee. 

A  number  of  denominations  have  already  provided 
for  this  office,  recognizing  officially  the  minister  of  edu- 

79 


NEW   PROGRAM   OF   RELIGIOUS   EDUCATION 

cation  though  not  always  as  coordinate  in  power  and 
responsibility  with  the  preaching  minister,  who  is  held 
primarily  responsible  for  all  interests  and  activities  of 
the  church. 

Not  until  the  educational  ministry  of  the  church  is 
recognized  and  provided  for,  first  in  the  preparation  of 
the  general  preaching  ministry,  and,  second,  in  the 
training  and  employment  of  a  highly  specialized  educa- 
tional ministry  when  the  size  of  the  church  permits,  will 
the  interests  of  religious  education  be  fully  recognized 
in  the  economy  of  the  church. 

CHANGE  OF  EMPHASIS  IN  CHURCH  PROGRAM 

If  the  church  is  to  make  religious  education  its  great 
concern  there  must  be  a  distinct  change  in  emphasis  at 
certain  points  of  its  program.  At  the  present  time,  as 
we  have  seen,  religious  education  does  not  receive  great 
relative  emphasis  at  the  hands  of  the  church.  Some  of 
the  tests  of  the  importance  placed  on  any  enterprise  by 
the  church  are  the  following: 

1.  The  amount  of  time,  thought,  energy  expended  com- 
pared with  the  magnitude  of  the  problem  or  the  work 
to  be  done. 

2.  The  amount  of  money  expended  compared  with 
the  need  for  funds  in  order  to  secure  efficiency. 

3.  The  place  occupied  by  the  enterprise  in  the  interest 
and  esteem  of  the  church  as  compared  with  its  other 
enterprises. 

4.  The  place  given  the  interests  and  problems  of  the 
enterprise  in  the  councils,  discussions,  and  plans  of 
church  leaders. 

5.  The  relative  efficiency  and  success  in  carrying  out 
the  enterprise  as  compared  with  the  efficiency  and  suc- 
cess in  other  enterprises. 

80 


IF  THE  CHURCH  SHOULD  ADOPT  A  PROGRAM 

Measured  by  such  tests  as  these,  it  is  probable  that 
the  major  enterprises  of  the  church  as  conceived  by  its 
present  leaders  would  be  listed  somewhat  in  this  order: 

1.  Preaching;  ministry  for  adult  congregations. 

2.  Evangelism;  efforts  to  secure  reclamatory  conver- 

sions. 

3.  Missionary  activities;  at  home  and  abroad. 

4.  General  education;  schools  and  colleges. 

5.  Religious  education;  chiefly  in  Sunday  schools. 

6.  Publishing;  religious  books,  papers,  etc. 

This  is  to  say,  measured  by  the  tests  suggested,  reli- 
gious education  probably  does  not  come  higher  than 
fifth  from  the  head  of  a  list  of  six  of  the  church's  leading 
activities  of  the  present.  At  least  it  certainly  is  a  long 
way  from  coming  first. 

Let  it  again  be  reiterated  in  this  connection  that  in 
making  such  a  comparison  there  is  no  thought  of  dis- 
paraging any  of  the  other  great  and  worthy  enterprises 
of  the  church.  The  point  is  that  religious  education 
should  come  first  because  it  is  at  the  root  of  all  the  others. 
Religious  education  will  create  an  intelligent  and  loyal 
congregation  for  the  preacher;  even  where  reclamatory 
evangelism  proves  necessary  it  will  in  some  degree  have 
prepared  the  soil  for  the  reception  of  the  message  of  the 
evangelist  and  for  the  action  of  divine  grace  in  the  heart; 
it  will  broaden  the  sympathies  and  increase  the  intelli- 
gence of  our  people  with  reference  to  missionary  needs; 
it  will  supply  the  motives  which  will  insure  the  proper 
use  of  the  powers  develof>ed  through  general  education; 
it  will  train  and  educate  a  reading  public  for  religious 
materials  published  by  the  church.  The  purpose  of 
religious  education  is,  therefore,  not  to  supplant  or 
overtop  other  activities  of  the  church,  but  only  to  lay 

81 


NEW   PROGRAM   OF   RELIGIOUS   EDUCATION 

firm  and  strong  the  foundations  on  which  they  all  may 
build.    This  it  can  do  and  will  do  if  given  a  chance. 

If  this  is  to  be  accomplished,  the  church  must  get  a 
new  perspective  on  the  relative  importance  of  its  enter- 
prises. It  must  not  undertake  to  build  without  founda- 
tions. It  must  see  to  it  that  religious  education  is  given 
the  full  measure  which  its  importance  demands  of  the 
time,  thought,  and  energy  of  the  church;  that  it  has  its 
proper  share  of  the  church's  funds;  that  in  public  in- 
terest and  esteem  it  takes  high  rank;  that  in  actual 
working  efficiency  and  achieved  results  it  does  not 
suffer  when  compared  with  other  church  enterprises. 
In  order  to  accomplish  these  results  great  and  funda- 
mental changes  of  emphasis  must  be  made  in  the  pro- 
gram of  the  church. 

A  REDISTRIBUTION  OF  THE  CHURCH 'S  BUDGET 

The  church,  as  an  organization,  spends  compara- 
tively little  on  the  religious  education  of  its  young. 
Now,  conceivably  this  might  come  either  from  the 
possibility  of  getting  the  necessary  teaching  done  free, 
as  in  the  home  and  in  the  Sunday  school,  or  it  might 
come  from  failure  to  recognize  that  here  is  one  of  the 
most  fruitful  places  for  the  expenditure  of  church  funds. 

So  little  does  the  average  church  look  upon  the  reli- 
gious education  of  children  as  a  thing  to  be  paid  for 
that  it  usually  does  not  even  put  an  appropriation  for 
the  Sunday  school  in  its  budget,  or,  as  we  have  already 
seen,  if  it  does,  the  amount  is  so  small  that  it  is  prac- 
tically negligible.  The  members  of  the  Sunday  school 
by  their  own  contributions  pay  for  their  lesson  ma- 
terials or  other  supplies  required. 

Now,  this  is  not  meant  to  argue  that  the  pupils  in  the 
Sunday  school  should  not  pay  toward  the  support  of 

82 


IF  THE  CHURCH  SHOULD  ADOPT  A  PROGRAM 

the  church  and  its  enterprises;  they  should,  for  this  is  a 
part  not  only  of  their  obligation,  but  of  their  training. 
They  should,  however,  pay  toward  the  support  of  their 
church,  and  then  in  addition,  class  by  class  or  the  school 
as  a  whole,  should  directly  contribute  to  various  benev- 
olent, religious,  and  missionary  enterprises  as  oppor- 
tunity offers. 

The  point  is  that  the  religious  education  of  its  chil- 
dren, in  the  Sunday  school  or  whatever  other  schools  of 
religion  the  church  may  run,  is  a  vital  part  of  the 
church's  program  and  should  come  in  on  the  distribu- 
tion of  its  budget  the  same  as  the  expenditure  for 
preaching,  benevolences,  missionary  work,  and  the  like. 
The  financing  of  this  important  function  of  the  church 
should  not  be  something  supplemental,  a  side  line,  an 
extra  to  be  taken  care  of  by  odds  and  ends  of  subscrip- 
tion, or  a  gift  now  and  then  to  make  up  for  a  deficit. 
In  fact,  one  of  the  best  tests  of  the  church's  regard  for 
religious  education  is  the  way  it  is  treated  in  the  church 
budget. 

Besides  the  change  of  policy  here  suggested  the  church 
must,  if  it  is  to  make  religious  education  a  primary  in- 
terest, spend  much  more  money  on  this  work  than  Jias 
been  done  in  the  past.  The  teaching  in  the  Sunday 
school  should  probably  for  the  most  part  continue  at 
least  for  the  present  to  be  done  without  pay.  The 
supervision  should,  at  least  in  all  larger  schools,  be  paid 
for,  and  the  amount  of  preparation  and  time  devoted  to 
it  correspondingly  increased.  In  the  largest  schools  the 
supervisors  of  departments  should  receive  a  moderate 
compensation  and  then  make  a  real  profession  out  of 
their  work.  To  those  who  fear  that  such  service  would 
lose  its  fine  quality  if  paid  for,  we  need  but  say  that 
this  objection  does  not  seem  to  hold  for  the  preacher 

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NEW  PROGRAM   OF   RELIGIOUS   EDUCATION 

(who  at  first  was  not  paid  for  his  work)  nor  the  mission- 
ary (who  b'kewise  formerly  worked  without  pay). 

When  the  church  takes  up  week-day  instruction  in 
religion  and  vacation  church  schools  in  a  large  way,  as 
it  must  do  if  it  is  to  make  religious  education  a  leading 
interest,  then  it  must  be  prepared  to  spend  thousands 
where  it  is  now  spending  hundreds  of  dollars.  For  these 
systems  cannot  be  run  on  a  basis  of  free  service.  There 
will  be  large  bills  to  pay  for  teaching,  for  textbooks,  and 
for  equipment. 

APPLY  EDUCATIONAL  STANDARDS  TO  THE  CHURCH 
SCHOOL 

As  has  already  been  pointed  out,  the  aims  of  the 
church  school  in  the  past  have  hardly  been  educational 
in  the  true  sense.  The  child  was  expected  to  absorb 
impressions  from  contact  with  the  church  and  the 
teacher.  The  mere  "going  to  Sunday  school"  was  sup- 
posed to  possess  some  special  spiritual  potency  able  to 
count  for  righteousness,  no  matter  what  went  on  there. 
In  all  too  many  schools  the  standards  of  success  and 
efficiency  have  gone  no  further  than: 

Enrollment  to-day  489;  one  year  ago  to-day  476 
Attendance  to-day  250;  one  year  ago  to-day  253 
Teachers  present       10;  teachers  absent  12 

Visitors  5. 

Collection  $2.63 ;  collection  last  Sunda;y  $2.56. 

Usually  in  the  recording  and  presenting  of  such  statis- 
tics as  these  there  is  no  meaning,  for  there  is  no  con- 
sideration of  the  relative  success  or  failure  of  the  sys- 
tem as  reached  by  the  figures  shown.  For  example,  if 
the  enrollment  is  489,  what  should  it  be;  how  many 
children  rightfully  within  the  sphere  of  influence  of  this 
church  are  not  enrolled;  and  who  are  they,  and  where 

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IF  THE  CHURCH  SHOULD  ADOPT  A  PROGRAM 

do  they  live,  and  why  are  they  not  here?  If  the  attend- 
ance is  250  out  of  489,  what  should  it  be;  what  is  a  fair 
average  attendance  based  on  enrollment;  what  is  it  for 
these  same  children  in  their  public  schools;  why  is  it 
not  larger  here?  If  only  10  teachers  out  of  22  are  pres- 
ent, where  are  the  rest?  Who  are  they?  Is  this  a  habit 
with  the  absentee  group?  Why  are  they  not  here 
to-day?  If  the  collection  is  $2.63  for  250  people,  is  this 
about  what  it  should  be?    If  not,  why  is  it  not  more? 

But  even  when  all  these  questions  are  answered  in 
such  a  way  as  to  make  the  statistics  intelligible — as 
they  seldom  are — this  is  still  only  the  beginning;  for 
these  things  that  the  average  school  sets  so  much  store 
by  are  but  the  preliminaries.  The  real  question  is.  What 
are  the  educational  results  of  our  school?  Thorndike 
tells  us  that  education  consists  of  "effecting  desired 
changes  in  the  lives  of  the  pupils."  What  changes  are 
the  various  classes  effecting  in  the  minds  of  their  pupils? 
How  eflScient  is  the  teaching?  Is  there  any  real  study 
on  the  lessons?  How  much  real  spiritual  development 
is  going  on?  How  much  different  in  thought,  life,  ideals, 
character,  loyalty  to  God  and  the  church  are  the  pupils 
for  their  contact  with  the  Sunday  school?  It  is  evident, 
of  course,  that  these  questions  do  not  admit  of  objective 
measurement  and  statistical  statement  in  the  same  way 
that  the  other  set  of  facts  do.  But  they  are  not  on 
that  account  the  less  important. 

Nor  are  we  wholly  devoid  of  practical  measure  for 
these  things.  Suppose  that  each  superintendent,  each 
teacher,  should  take  these  three  measures  for  the  suc- 
cess of  his  work: 

I.  What  usable  religious  knowledge  are  my  pupils 
getting — about  God,  the  Bible,  the  way  of  life  set 
forth  by  Jesus? 

85 


NEW   PROGRAM   OF   RELIGIOUS   EDUCATION 

2.  What  religious  attitudes  are  they  developing— in- 
terests, ideals,  standards,  loyalties  toward  the  school, 
the  church,  the  Bible,  life  itself? 

3.  What  practical  applications  are  they  making  of  the 
truths  taught  and  lessons  learned  to  their  daily  living 
in  the  home,  the  school,  the  community,  the  world  at 
large,  etc.? 

Would  not  a  sober  study  of  actual  results  on  some 
such  simple  basis  as  this  tend  to  disturb  the  com- 
placency of  many  schools  that  now  seem  to  be  run- 
ning so  smoothly  but  which  are  measuring  their  success 
in  terms  of  the  simpler,  more  easily  secured  and  more 
objective  results? 

Vitally  related  to  this  last  problem,  the  real  educa- 
tional test  of  the  church  school,  is  the  standard  of  the 
pupil's  mastery  of  the  curriculum,  the  extent  to  which 
he  knows,  understands,  and  applies  the  lessons  he  is 
taught.  Religion  involves  a  body  of  materials,  chiefly 
but  not  wholly  from  the  Bible,  to  be  studied,  remem- 
bered, repeated,  discussed,  applied,  carried  out  into 
activity.  Our  standards  on  these  points  at  present  are 
lamentably  low.  Probably  not  one  child  in  a  hundred 
could  pass  such  an  examination  on  his  Sunday-school 
material  as  he  is  required  to  pass  month  by  month  in 
his  public-school  studies  in  order  to  secure  promotion. 
Yet  the  child  must  learn  his  religion  and  develop  it  in 
accordance  with  the  same  laws  that  govern  his  develop- 
ment in  public  school  education. 

The  remedy  at  this  point  will  necessitate  better 
teaching.  It  will  require  better  conditions  under  which 
teaching  may  go  on,  better  classroom  facilities,  better 
equipment,  more  time  available.  It  will  also  require 
somewhat  radical  revision  of  the  curriculum  which  is 
offered  the  child. 

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IF  THE  CHURCH  SHOULD  ADOPT  A  PROGRAM 

A  full  discussion  of  the  content  and  plan  of  the  curric- 
ulum of  religious  education  would  exceed  the  limits  of 
this  discussion.  One  important  feature,  however,  may 
be  mentioned — that  of  the  mechanical  form  in  which 
curriculum  materials  for  the  church  schools  are  issued. 
Partly  as  a  matter  of  tradition  and  partly  as  a  matter 
of  supposed  economy  the  materials  are  quite  commonly 
issued  in  pamphlet  or  leaflet  form  for  both  teachers 
and  pupils. 

This  is  a  serious  educational  error.  The  value  of 
truth  is  influenced  by  the  form  in  which  it  is  printed 
and  bound.  Religious  materials  coming  to  the  pupil  in 
the  form  of  temporary  unbound  leaflets,  often  inferior 
in  paper,  illustrations,  type,  and  general  impression  to 
the  advertising  pamphlets  that  flood  our  mails  and 
immediately  find  their  way  to  our  wastebaskets,  cannot 
have  the  effect  that  these  same  lessons  would  have  in 
the  form  of  attractive  textbooks. 

Nor  is  there  any  incentive  to  keep  this  leaflet  ma- 
terial as  a  permanent  part  of  a  growing  personal  li- 
brary, so  we  seldom  find  any  evidence  in  the  home  of 
the  child's  church-school  curriculum.  In  fact,  most  of 
what  is  given  out  to  children  is  mislaid,  lost,  or  de- 
stroyed without  ever  having  been  used.  Religious 
material  should  not  suffer  in  comparison  with  public- 
school  texts  in  the  matter  of  attractiveness  of  form. 

Nor  is  it  at  all  certain  that  the  temporary  form  of 
publication  is  cheaper  in  the  end;  in  fact,  it  is  beyond 
question  a  highly  expensive  and  uneconomical  method 
of  issuing  lesson  materials.  It  will  be  granted,  of  course, 
that  for  younger  children  various  leaflets,  pictures,  etc., 
are  essential.  For  those  old  enough  to  read,  however,  a 
textbook  system  would  be  more  economical  based  on 
the  amount  of  use  to  be  had  from  any  single  unit  of 

87 


NEW  PROGRAM   OF  RELIGIOUS   EDUCATION 

printed  materials.  The  church  should  own  its  textbooks 
and  loan  them  out  as  the  public-school  district  does  to 
its  pupils.  If  the  pupil  desires  to  buy  the  book  and 
have  it  for  his  own,  he  may  do  so  in  either  case.  If  he 
loses  a  book  or  injures  it,  he  is  expected  to  pay  for  it  in 
one  case  as  in  the  other.  In  this  way  successive  classes 
can  use  the  same  texts  for  several  years,  thus  requiring 
in  the  end  much  less  of  actual  printing  and  distributing 
of  material  than  under  the  present  system. 


88 


CHAPTER  VIII 
THE  NEW  PROGRAM 

It  is  evident  even  to  the  casual  observer  that  a  new 
type  of  educational  program  is  developing  among  the 
Protestant  Churches  of  this  country.  Every  denomina- 
tion is  without  exception  recently  seeking  to  strengthen 
its  educational  organization  and  perfect  its  educational 
agencies.  Almost  every  individual  church  has  felt  the 
urge  of  this  movement  and  is  responding  in  accordance 
with  whatever  of  vision  and  leadership  it  may  possess. 

The  new  program  of  religious  education  will  not  only 
call  for  new  methods  but  for  a  certain  amount  of  new 
organization  as  well.  It  is,  of  course,  good  economy  and 
also  good  policy  to  use  existent  organizations  in  so  far  as 
they  will  serve  the  purpose.  Wherever  a  new  orgam'za- 
tion  is  needed,  however,  the  church  should  not  hesitate 
to  effect  such  change  as  may  be  required.  Nothing  should 
be  retained  merely  because  it  is  old,  nothing  should  be 
accepted  just  because  it  is  new.  The  test  of  practical 
working  eJBBciency  should  govern. 

MAKING  THE   SUNDAY  SCHOOL  A  CHILDREN'S  CHURCH 

Historically,  the  Sunday  school  is  at  the  center  of 
religious  education  in  the  church  and  will  probably  re- 
main so  for  the  near  future  at  least  without  fundamental 
reconstruction.  However,  the  present  type  of  Sunday 
school  could  greatly  add  to  its  efficiency  by  certain 
changes  in  its  organization,  policy,  and  standards. 

Out  of  the  Sunday  school  should  be  made  the  children's 
church.  The  adult  church  can  never  successfully  serve  as 
a  church  for  the  children  just  because  they  are  children 

89 


NEW   PROGRAM   OF  RELIGIOUS   EDUCATION 

with  the  requirements  of  children  instead  of  adults.  The 
church  that  serves  the  children  must  be  primarily  a 
teaching  church  just  as  the  church  that  serves  the  adults 
is  primarily  a  preaching  church. 

The  present-day  Sunday  school  is  hardly  adequate  as 
a  children's  church,  though  it  could  easily  be  made  so. 
To  make  the  Sunday  school  into  a  true  church  for  the 
children  the  program  could  be  organized  on  somewhat 
the  following  basis  with  whatever  modifications  might  be 
necessary  to  adapt  it  to  varying  conditions: 

The  Junior  Church  (that  is,  the  modified  Sunday 
school)  should  consist  of  all  children  from  the  Beginners 
up  to  the  age  of  thirteen  or  fourteen.  It  should  meet 
before  the  Senior  Church  services,  say  at  nine  o'clock,  and 
close  at  ten-fifteen  or  ten-thirty.  The  program  should  be 
a  varied  one,  with  frequent  changes  of  activity  suited  to 
the  various  ages. 

The  first  half  hour  should  be  devoted  to  the  prepara- 
tion of  lessons — supervised  study,  directed  activities  or 
the  carrying  out  of  other  assigned  work.  It  is  recognized 
by  every  Sunday-school  worker  at  present  that  it  is 
practically  impossible  to  secure  any  real  study  and  prep- 
aration of  the  lesson  materials.  Supervised  study  and 
directed  activities  are  provided  for  in  the  best  public 
schools  of  the  day  and  they  are  doubly  needed  in  religious 
education. 

The  second  period  should  be  for  general  congregational 
assembly  and  worship.  For  this  purpose  the  best  part  ©f 
the  church  should  be  used,  the  auditorium  with  its  organ, 
architecture,  and  all  other  environmental  influences  capa- 
ble of  making  religious  impressions.  During  this  period 
the  minister  will  preach  to  the  children  a  sermon  of  from 
eight  to  ten  minutes — a  sermon  that  has  had  as  much 
thought  and  care  in  its  preparation  as  the  one  intended 

90 


THE  NEW  PROGRAM 

for  adults.  The  program  will  include  much  singing  of 
children's  hymns  led  by  one  who  knows  how  to  teach 
children  to  sing.  The  children  will  participate  in  short 
ritual  responses  and  in  congregational  prayers.  Every 
part  of  the  exercises  will  be  pleasant  and  enjoyable  and 
devotional  in  the  best  sense.  Adults  may  come  to  the 
service,  but  they  must  sit  at  the  rear  or  in  the  galleries, 
leaving  the  body  of  the  church  and  its  best  seats  for  the 
children.  The  teachers  will,  of  course,  be  distributed 
among  the  children's  congregation  by  classes. 

During  the  third  period  the  children  will  again  meet 
by  classes  for  recitation  of  the  lessons  prepared  during  the 
first  period,  for  drills,  dramatizations,  discussion,  expres- 
sional  assignments  and  reports,  for  study  assignments  and 
whatever  else  is  suitable  to  age  and  subject  matter. 

It  is,  of  course,  not  essential  to  the  plan  that  the  three 
periods  shall  follow  in  Just  the  order  here  suggested.  But 
it  is  necessary  that  the  three  lines  of  activity  shall  be 
carried  out;  namely,  study ,  worship,  instruction. 

The  Junior  Church  should  provide  for  definite  recogni- 
tion of  membership,  for  promotion  from  class  to  class  and 
finally  for  graduation  into  the  Senior  Church  and  church 
school.  The  annual  graduation  exercises  should  be 
celebrated  fittingly.  Children  who  have  not  prior  to  this 
time  become  members  of  the  general  church  would  then 
be  received  into  membership.  For  those  already  mem- 
bers an  impressive  recognition  service  would  be  provided. 
By  this  method  of  close  bridging  over  a  great  leakage 
from  the  church  could  be  cured. 

Some  may  object  that  the  plan  here  proposed  will  break 
up  the  family  and  not  bring  the  whole  family  group  to- 
gether at  any  church  service.  Two  answers  may  be  given 
to  this  problem :  First,  it  is  the  rare  exception  rather  than 
the  rule  now  to  find  the  entire  family  together  at  the 

91 


NEW   PROGRAM  OF  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION 

church  service,  nor  is  the  tendency  growing  in  that 
direction.  Second,  except  as  a  matter  of  sentiment  it  is 
not  at  all  certain  that  the  best  reUgious  results  can  be 
obtained  by  having  the  family  all  together  at  any  one 
service  of  the  church,  since  when  this  occurs  one  part  of 
the  family  (practically  always  the  children)  are  left  un- 
provided for  in  the  program  of  services. 

Others  may  object  that  the  plan  offered  is  nothing, 
after  all,  but  the  present  Sunday  school  somewhat 
modified.  Precisely.  The  plan  differs  from  the  Sunday 
school  only  in  the  expansion  and  richness  of  its  program 
and  functions.  It  provides  for  actual  study  and  prepara- 
tion under  direction;  it  seeks  to  introduce  a  serious,  care- 
fully planned,  impressive  program  of  worship;  it  brings 
the  minister  in  contact  as  preacher  with  the  children  of 
the  church;  it  recognizes  and  brings  children  to  recognize 
a  church  for  the  children  as  well  as  a  church  for  the 
adults;  it  provides  for  formal  taking  over  of  children 
from  the  junior  into  the  senior,  or  general,  church. 

The  Jum'or  Church  plan  will,  however,  not  solve  the 
whole  problem — at  least  as  the  problem  now  exists.  For 
the  curve  of  attendance  in  the  Sunday  school  drops 
sharply  in  the  teen  age.  Especially  the  boys  of  the  high- 
school  period  do  not  go  in  large  numbers  to  the  church 
school,  nor  do  the  girls  go  as  well  as  in  the  earlier  grades. 
This  is  a  fatal  weakness,  for  probably  at  no  time  does  the 
individual  more  need  the  stimulus  and  guidance  of  re- 
ligious instruction  than  during  the  time  of  the  difl&cult 
transition  from  childhood  and  youth  to  manhood  and 
womanhood.  Now  is  the  time  when  ideals  are  taking 
definite  and  practical  form.  Plans  are  shaping  for  life- 
work.  New  temptations  thrust  themselves  forward. 
Held  to  the  church  and  its  influences  now,  the  Ufe  is 
reasonably  safe;  separated  at  this  juncture  from  the 

92 


THE  NEW  PROGRAM 

church,  there  is  danger  of  growing  indifference  and  final 
disregard. 

In  every  way  possible,  therefore,  the  church  should 
strengthen  this  section  of  its  school.  The  curriculum  now 
offered  for  the  high-school  age  needs  radical  and  effective 
revision.  Inspiring  teachers  who  know  and  love  the 
adolescent  and  who  are  highly  skilled  in  materials  and 
method  should  be  provided.  Good  classrooms  should  be 
made  available,  teaching  equipment  supplied,  and  every- 
thing else  done  which  wisdom  and  trained  leadership  can 
suggest  to  hold  the  young  people  in  contact  with  the 
Sunday  school  and  the  church.  For  at  this  age  they  are 
no  longer  se?it.  They  come  or  stay  away.  And  they  will 
come  only  if  their  interest  and  their  sense  of  values  are 
satisfied  with  the  results. 

Wholly  aside  from  questions  of  organization  such  as 
we  have  been  discussing,  the  Sunday  school  should  seek 
to  standardize  its  work  on  an  educational  basis.  The  edu- 
cational survey  has  become  an  important  instrument  for 
improving  public-school  systems.  For  use  in  making  such 
surveys  there  have  been  developed  various  scales,  tests, 
and  schedules  by  means  of  which  to  measure  the  teach- 
ing, curriculum,  organization,  administration,  equipment, 
etc.  A  beginning  in  this  direction  has  been  made  in  the 
field  of  religious  education,  but  much  needs  to  be  done. 

It  is  possible,  for  example,  for  a  public  school  system  to 
say  after  such  a  survey:  Our  teaching  force,  based  on 
standards  obtaining  in  American  schools,  ranks  ninety 
per  cent  in  efliciency;  our  results  in  arithmetic  one  hun- 
dred and  ten  per  cent;  our  language  and  reading  eighty- 
five  per  cent;  our  buildings  and  equipment  seventy  per 
cent;  our  care  of  health  and  teaching  of  hygiene  seventy- 
five  per  cent.  Similarly,  it  would  be  a  great  help  if  each 
Sunday  school  could  be  able  to  rate  itself  on  various 

93 


NEW  PROGRAM   OF  RELIGIOUS   EDUCATION 

aspects  of  its  work  by  use  of  accepted  standards  applied 
to  church  schools.  It  might  cure  many  schools  of  an  un- 
warranted complacency. 

THE  VACATION  CHURCH  DAY  SCHOOL 

A  new  movement  has  grown  up  within  the  last  decade 
for  using  a  part  of  the  child's  summer  vacation  time  for 
religious  instruction.  The  public  school  claims  only 
about  three-fourths  of  the  child's  year  for  general  educa- 
tion. While  it  is  true  that  the  child  should  have  some 
free  time  for  vacation,  it  is  not  necessary  nor  desirable 
that  there  should  be  three  months  each  year  of  idleness. 
Indeed,  after  the  first  two  or  three  weeks  of  the  long 
summer  vacation  most  children  do  not  know  quite  what 
to  do  with  themselves  and  gladly  welcome  an  interesting 
program,  a  part  of  which  may  be  instructional. 

The  movement  for  the  church  vacation  school  has 
developed  so  rapidly  that  literally  hundreds  of  churches 
and  communities  have  now  come  to  use  from  four  to  six 
weeks  of  the  summer  for  special  schools  organized  for  the 
children.  The  program  is  usually  five  days  each  week 
covering  from  two  to  three  hours  in  the  forenoon. 

As  in  the  case  of  all  new  movements  there  has  been 
evidence  of  some  lack  of  definiteness  of  aim  and  of  method 
in  connection  with  many  of  the  church  vacation  schools. 
Some  have  attempted  to  do  little  except  to  bring  the 
children  in  from  the  streets  and  amuse  them  for  an  hour 
or  two  in  a  good  environment.  Others  of  the  schools  have 
undertaken  to  base  their  program  largely  upon  craft 
work  of  various  sorts.  Still  others  have  worked  out  a  bet- 
ter balanced  program  and  use  a  reasonable  portion  of  the 
time  for  serious  and  definite  religious  instruction  while  at 
the  same  time  remembering  to  provide  sufficient  recrea- 
tion and  fun  to  attract  this  side  of  the  child's  natur<*^ 

94 


THE  NEW  PROGRAM 

Certain  general  principles,  which  grow  out  of  the  needs 
of  the  child  himself,  are  clear  with  reference  to  the  pro- 
gram of  the  vacation  school.  Firsty  this  is  a  vacation 
school  and  must  therefore  be  somewhat  different  from 
the  regular  school  of  the  work-time  year.  Second,  the 
fourfold  nature  of  the  child  should  be  ministered  to: 
(i)  the  physical,  in  its  health,  cleanliness,  purity,  and 
general  well-being;  (2)  the  mental,  in  its  requirement  for 
interesting  fact,  discovery,  thought,  learning;  (3)  the 
social,  with  its  comradeship,  service,  recreation,  fun;  (4) 
the  spiritual,  with  its  growth  in  religious  knowledge  and 
understanding,  its  training  in  worship,  its  carrying  in- 
struction over  into  character  through  expressional  activ- 
ities and  practical  projects  of  helpfulness  and  cooperation. 
All  four  of  these  needs  should  be  represented  in  the  cur- 
riculum of  the  vacation  church  school. 

In  general,  it  may  be  said  that  for  the  church,  ham- 
pered as  it  is  for  adequate  time  in  which  to  teach  the 
child  religion,  this  vacation  time  which  commonly  goes 
to  waste  is  too  precious  to  overlook  or  neglect.  An  im- 
portant part  of  the  modern  plan  of  religious  education 
will  therefore  be  to  organize  and  conduct  an  effective 
church  vacation  school,  the  length  of  which  should 
probably  be  from  five  to  six  weeks.  This  may  be  done 
by  individual  churches  but  probably  best  by  federated  or 
conmiunity  effort  where  conditions  will  permit. 

THE   WEEK-DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOL 

One  of  the  most  recent  and  promising  movements  in 
religious  education  is  that  of  the  week-day  church  school. 

Throughout  all  its  history  it  has  been  the  policy  of  the 
Catholic  Church  to  combine  religious  instruction  with 
general  education.  In  order  to  accomplish  this  purpose, 
as  already  indicated,   Catholics  in  this  country  have 

95 


NEW   PROGRAM   OF   RELIGIOUS   EDUCATION 

quite  generally  desired  to  draw  their  children  out  from 
the  public  schools  and  send  them  to  parochial  schools 
run  by  the  church.  In  these  schools  religion  has  a  regular 
part  on  each  day's  program  as  much  as  arithmetic  or 
geography.  As  was  said  earlier  in  the  discussion,  this 
thorough  instruction  in  religion  from  childhood  up  is  no 
doubt  the  chief  factor  in  the  ability  of  the  Catholic 
Church  to  maintain  itself. 

The  Jewish  people  in  the  United  States  have  also 
carried  on  a  more-or-less  effective  program  of  religious 
instruction  for  their  children.  This  has  differed  from  the 
policy  of  the  Catholics,  however,  in  that  they  have  not 
taken  their  children  out  of  the  public  schools  in  order  to 
give  them  religious  instruction  on  week  days.  Their 
usual  method  has  been  to  claim  the  time  of  the  child  for 
one  class  period  each  day  of  the  week  for  religious  in- 
struction in  addition  to  his  regular  public  school  work. 
In  this  way  the  Jews  have,  while  remaining  loyal  sup- 
porters to  the  public  schools,  at  the  same  time  made  sure 
that  their  children  were  not  lacking  in  the  fundamental 
knowledge  and  training  of  their  religion. 

With  the  Protestant  Church  the  problem  has  been 
somewhat  different  than  in  either  of  the  two  cases  cited. 
In  the  earlier  history  of  this  country  the  curriculum  of 
■general  education  was  distinctly  religious.  The  old  New 
England  Primer  used  for  more  than  one  hundred  and 
fifty  years  as  the  child's  sole  introduction  to  reading  and 
literature  consisted  almost  wholly  of  distinctly  religious 
material.  The  Bible  was  also  regularly  read  and  studied 
in  the  schools,  as  it  was  in  the  homes.  Other  religious 
books  also  formed  a  part  of  the  school  curriculum. 

With  the  growth  of  the  principle  of  the  separation  of 
church  and  state,  however,  the  curriculum  of  public 
education  was  naturally  secularized  and  religion  dropped 

96 


THE  NEW  PROGRAM 

out  of  the  public-school  course.  Along  with  this  change 
the  church  home  seemed  to  lose  much  of  its  interest  in 
instructing  the  child  in  religion.  The  result  has  been 
that  the  Protestant  child  has  for  the  most  part  httle  or 
no  religious  instruction  except  that  received  in  the  Sun- 
day school  and  in  occasional  attendance  at  the  general 
church  sessions.  This  is  to  say  that  religion  has  been 
almost  wholly  lost  out  of  his  education  and  hence  out 
of  his  general  life  equipment. 

Two  principles  will  serve  to  determine  the  amount  of 
time  which  any  subject  should  have  in  the  child's  gen- 
eral scheme  of  education:  (i)  the  importance  of  that 
subject  in  the  life  of  the  individual  and  in  the  welfare  of 
society;  (2)  the  scope,  breadth,  or  amount  of  material  in  the 
subject  necessary  to  be  covered  in  order  to  master  it  and 
secure  its  advantages. 

Now,  no  one  who  believes  at  all  in  religion  will  be 
likely  to  say  that  it  is  of  less  importance  in  the  life  of  an 
individual  or  society  than  any  one  of  the  public  school 
subjects.  Yet  the  child  in  the  average  public  school  of 
the  United  States  will  during  most  of  the  eight  grades  of 
the  elementary  school  have  from  fifty  to  sixty  hours  a 
year  upon  the  subject  of  arithmatics.  At  the  same  time 
this  child,  even  if  he  attends  Sunday  school,  is  quite  cer- 
tain not  to  have  more  than  six  to  ten  hours  of  religious 
instruction  during  a  year,  and  this  under  very  unfavor- 
able conditions.  The  result  is  that  our  children  are  not 
educated  in  religion  as  they  are  in  the  subjects  of  their 
public-school  course. 

Upon  such  principles  and  reasoning  the  church  is  re- 
cently coming  to  ask  for  a  division  of  public  school  time 
in  order  that  the  child  may  have  a  reasonable  proportion 
of  week-day  time  for  instruction  in  religion.  The  time 
allowed  on  Sunday  does  not  afford  sufficient  opportunity 

97 


NEW  PROGRAM   OF   RELIGIOUS   EDUCATION 

to  give  the  basic  instruction  and  training  in  religion 
which  the  child  needs.  The  addition  of,  say,  two  class 
periods  a  week,  to  the  church  school  time,  would  afford 
a  reasonable  division  of  the  child's  entire  educational 
time  and  still  not  cripple  the  program  of  general  edu- 
cation. 

Besides  the  securing  of  more  time  by  the  introduction 
of  week-day  classes  in  religion  this  system  affords  the 
advantage  of  giving  religious  instruction  on  somewhat 
the  same  basis  as  that  which  obtains  for  general  educa- 
tion. The  child  in  the  week-day  class  in  religion  is  more 
likely  to  employ  there  the  same  standards  of  study, 
mastery,  and  recitation  that  obtain  in  the  public  school 
than  he  is  in  his  Sunday-school  work.  Furthermore,  the 
very  fact  of  carrying  religion  over  into  the  week-day  life 
tends  to  develop  in  the  child  the  fundamental  under- 
standing that  religion  is  not  a  matter  for  Sundays  only 
but  that  it  belongs  in  all  relations  and  activities  of  living 
all  the  days  of  the  week. 

Some  have  feared  that  the  extending  of  instruction  in 
religion  over  into  week-day  time  will  again  introduce 
religion  into  the  public  schools,  which  is,  of  course,  not 
the  case.  The  principle  of  separation  of  church  and  state 
is  so  thoroughly  established  in  this  country  that  it  is  no 
longer  open  to  discussion.  Those  who  are  advocating 
week-day  instruction  in  religion  are  not  advising  that 
this  instruction  be  given  in  public  schools,  or  by  public- 
school  teachers,  or  under  the  supervision  of  public-school 
authorities.  These  three  fundamental  tests  define  be- 
yond question  the  responsibility  of  the  church  for  its 
week-day  schools: 

(i)  Week-day  religious  instruction  is  supported  by 
church  funds  and  not  by  public  funds. 

(2)  The  curriculum  taught  in  the  week-day  church 

98 


THE  NEW  PROGRAM 

school  is  selected  not  by  public  school  authority  but  by 
church  authority. 

(3)  The  teachers  and  their  requirements  are  deter- 
mined, not  by  public  school,  but  by  church  authority. 

Once  these  three  principles  are  definitely  settled,  there 
can  be  no  question  of  combining  religious  instruction 
with  public-school  instruction  or  of  stirring  up  the  old 
controversy  of  the  relations  of  church  and  state.  The 
public  schools  do  not  desire  to  be  commissioned  with 
responsibility  for  teaching  religion  nor  do  the  churches 
desire  them  to  be  delegated  with  this  responsibility. 

While  week-day  religious  instruction  presents  many 
difficult  problems,  it  is  doubtful  whether  the  church  can 
do  its  duty  in  educating  the  child  in  religion  without 
claiming  some  portion  of  his  week-day  time.  Important 
experiments  are  now  under  way  in  week-day  church 
schools,  and  many  new  enterprises  are  organizing.  To- 
ward the  solution  of  this  question  the  church  should 
devote  its  best  energies. 

THE   TEACHER   TRAINING   SCHOOL 

No  system  of  church  schools  is  complete  that  does  not 
definitely  provide  for  the  training  of  teachers  of  rehgion. 
It  is  an  inspiring  thought  that  we  have  in  the  United 
States  nearly  two  million  Sunday-school  teachers  and 
officers  freely  serving  the  educational  program  of  the 
church  without  monetary  compensation. 

Yet  in  the  very  fact  of  unpaid  service  there  is  danger. 
The  state  is  able,  because  it  pays  the  salaries  of  the 
public-school  teachers,  to  set  certain  standards  for  their 
education  and  make  certain  requirements  for  continued 
growth  and  professional  advancement  after  they  begin 
service.  In  the  volunteer  system  of  church-school  teach- 
ing there  can,  of  course,  be  no  such  thing  as  examinations 

99 


NEW  PROGRAM   OF   RELIGIOUS   EDUCATION 

and  certificates  and  required  study.  It  is  doubtful 
whether  the  great  army  of  church  school  teachers  could 
pass  a  very  high  examination  on  the  subject  matter  they 
are  supposed  to  teach.  The  sense  of  duty,  devotion  and 
opportunity  must  be  appealed  to  in  each  teacher  to 
insure  as  full  a  preparation  and  growth  as  may  be. 

In  every  Sunday  school  of  fair  size  there  should  be  one 
normal  class  consisting  of  the  most  promising  young 
people  of  both  sexes  who  are  willing  to  prepare  for  teach- 
ing positions  as  they  offer. 

For  teachers  and  officers  already  in  service  the  church 
and  the  community  training  school  have  been  devised. 
Many  churches  now  have  special  evening  classes  for 
teachers  meeting  once  each  week  for  from  twelve  to 
twenty-four  weeks  a  year.  Supplementing  these  and 
usually  altogether  stronger  and  more  efl&cient  are  the 
conamunity  training  schools  consisting  of  workers  from 
all  the  various  denominations  organized  in  special  classes 
under  highly  trained  instructors. 

Both  types  of  teacher-training  schools  are  on  the 
increase,  but  as  yet  a  pitifully  small  proportion  of  our 
Sunday-school  teachers  have  had  or  are  taking  any 
training  adequately  to  prepare  them  for  their  great  work. 
The  church  must  train  its  teachers.  It  is  as  impossible 
to  teach  religion  as  it  is  arithmetic  without  knowing  the 
materials  or  having  mastered  the  technique  of  instruc- 
tion. An  irreligious  teacher  of  science  is  no  more  of  an 
anomaly  than  an  unscientific  teacher  of  religion. 

THE   HOME 

Let  us  not  conclude,  however,  that  the  new  program 
of  religious  education  can  be  carried  out  by  the  organiza- 
tions of  the  church  alone  no  matter  how  well  the  work 
may  be  done.   The  home  must  do  its  share. 

100 


THE  NEW  PROGRAM 

Time  was  when  the  home  was  required  to  teach  the 
child  the  rudiments  of  reading  and  number  before  he 
could  be  admitted  to  the  pubhc  school.  The  records  of 
the  old  New  England  town  meetings  contain  many- 
entries  to  the  effect  that  "Goodman  So-and-So  is  re- 
quired to  take  his  children  out  of  the  school  until  they 
have  been  properly  prepared  for  admission." — that  is, 
until  the  home  had  taught  the  beginnings  of  the  "three 
R's."  So  also  the  old-time  home  taught  the  child  in  a 
very  practical  and  concrete  way  what  we  now  call 
manual  training  and  domestic  science — taught  these 
things  in  the  everyday  routine  of  household  duties  in 
which  every  member  from  the  youngest  to  the  oldest  had 
a  responsible  part.  Now  the  home  teaches  practically 
none  of  these  things.  The  school  has  for  the  most  part 
taken  them  all  over,  and  the  home  is  reheved  of  responsi- 
biUty. 

In  similar  way  the  earlier  home,  the  church  home, 
taught  its  children  religion.  The  family  worship,  the 
grace  at  meals,  the  Sunday  readings  of  the  Bible,  the 
memorizing  of  verses,  the  learning  of  the  catechism — 
these  and  other  forms  of  religious  instruction  were  a 
regular  part  of  the  family  program,  an  accepted  part  of 
its  responsibihties.  But  times  have  changed,  and  even 
the  church  family — the  average  family — seems  to  have 
handed  instruction  in  religion  over  to  the  church  as  it  has 
handed  instruction  in  general  education  over  to  the  school. 

This  will  not  work.  No  program  of  rehgion  will  work 
which  leaves  the  home  out.  There  is  no  possibility  of 
giving  all  responsibiUty  for  religious  instruction  and  im- 
pression over  to  the  church  as  arithmetic  may  be  given 
to  the  school. 

In  the  first  place  it  will  not  work  because  the  religious 
impressions  of  the  child  should  be  begun  earlier  than  the 

lOI 


NEW  PROGRAM   OF  RELIGIOUS   EDUCATION 

church  can  get  him.  Back  of  the  time  reached  by  the 
later  memory  the  child  should  be  under  the  influence  of 
the  mother's  (and  at  the  right  time  his  own)  bedtime 
prayer;  of  the  quiet-hour  talk  and  story;  of  the  lullaby; 
of  the  grace  said  at  meals;  and  of  a  home  thoroughly 
permeated  by  a  reverent  religious  atmosphere.  For  in 
these  earliest  years  the  most  lasting  impressions  are  made 
and  the  surest  foundations  laid.  As  the  child  comes  to 
the  age  of  understanding,  the  home  can  through  the 
religious  story,  through  simple  talks  and  explanations  by 
mother  and  father  about  God  and  about  Jesus,  through 
songs  and  hymns,  and  through  direct  instruction  do  more 
for  the  spiritual  unfoldment  of  the  child's  nature  than 
can  possibly  be  done  by  the  church. 

Furthermore,  after  the  church  begins  its  training  of 
the  child  there  must  be  a  laboratory  for  working  out, 
making  real,  and  putting  into  practice  the  teachings  of 
the  church  school.  The  most  natural  and  the  best  labora- 
tory is  the  home.  Here  the  lessons  can  be  exemplified  in 
the  love  and  care  and  kindness  of  the  members  of  the 
family.  Here  the  instruction  in  obedience,  in  helpfulness, 
in  truthfulness,  and  honor  can  find  application  and  rein- 
forcement— providing  the  home  is  in  s)mipathetic  con- 
tact with  the  church  school  and  doing  its  share  in  carrying 
out  the  joint  program  of  the  child's  religious  training. 

To  bring  the  home  to  realize  its  share  of  responsibility 
for  the  child's  education  in  religion  and  to  help  the  home 
prepare  to  meet  this  responsibility  is  one  of  the  first 
responsibilities  of  the  church  in  its  new  program.  Nor 
will  it  be  sufficient  for  the  preacher  now  and  then  to 
preach  a  sermon  on  the  responsibility  of  the  home,  not 
even  if  he  exhorts  fathers  and  mothers  warmly  on  the 
subject.  He  may  do  these  things,  but  they  are  easily 
done — and  not  very  effective. 

I02 


THE  NEW  PROGRAM 

The  church  should  have  training  classes  for  parents 
just  as  for  teachers.  In  these  classes  should  be  taught 
something  of  the  religion  of  childhood,  the  way  to  begin 
to  make  religious  impressions  on  the  child,  how  to  teach 
to  pray,  first  ideas  to  give  about  God,  how  to  lead  to 
right  observance  of  the  Sabbath — such  practical  ques- 
tions should  be  discussed  by  a  leader  who  knows  by 
experience  and  training  how  to  meet  these  and  similar 
problems  and  how  to  help  parents  meet  them. 

But  the  responsibility  of  the  church  does  not  end  here. 
The  home  needs  created  for  it  and  put  into  its  hands  a 
new  literature  on  child  religion.  This  literature  must  be 
scientifically  based  but  wholly  untechnical  in  form.  It 
must  not  only  discuss  and  illustrate  methods  but  must 
supply  an  abundance  of  concrete  materials  in  the  way  of 
Bible  and  other  religious  stories,  songs,  prayers,  pictures, 
and  whatever  else  can  fruitfully  be  used  in  training  the 
child. 

It  will  then  be  the  problem  and  the  privilege  of  each 
local  church,  through  every  agency  that  can  be  brought 
to  bear  on  the  problem,  to  interest,  instruct,  train,  in- 
spire parents  to  use  these  materials  in  bringing  the  home 
effectively  to  do  its  part  toward  the  religious  develop- 
ment of  its  children. 


103 


A  SELECTED  LIST  OF  BOOKS,  PAMPHLETS,  AND 

ARTICLES  BEARING  ON  THE  PROBLEMS 

SET  FORTH  IN  THIS  BOOK: 

Coe,  G.  A.,  A  Social  Theory  of  Religious  Education. 
Stout,  J.  E,,  Organization  and  Administration  of  Re- 
ligious Education. 

Week-day  Religious  Instruction. 
Betts,  G.  H.,  How  to  Teach  Religion. 

The  Curriculum  of  Religious  Education. 
Cope,  H.  F.,  The  School  in  the  Modern  Church. 

The  Week-Day  Church  School. 

Atheam,    W.    S.,   Religious   Education   and  American 
Democracy. 

Richardson,  N.  E.,  Religious  Education  as  a  Vocation. 

(Editor)  American  Home  Series. 
Stafford,  Hazel  S.,  The  Church  Vacation  School. 
McKibben,  F.  M.,  The  Community  Training  School. 
Betts,  A.  F.,  The  Mother-Teacher  of  Religion. 
Crawford,  L.  W.,  Vocations  Within  the  Church. 

(The  above  books  can  be  secured  through  your  regular 
bookseller.) 


McGiffert,  A.  C,  "A  Teaching  Church,"  Religious  Edu- 
cation, February,  192 1. 

Coe,  G.  A.,  "Religious  Education  Finding  Itself,"  School 
and  Society,  January  20,  191 5. 
104 


A  SELECTED  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Conrad,  H.  M.,  "The  Lake  Avenue  (Rochester,  New 
York)  Plan  of  Religious  Education,"  Religious 
Education,  December,  1920. 

Cowles,  Mary  K.,  "The  Van  Wert  Plan  of  Week-Day 
Religious  Instruction,"  Religious  Education,  Febru- 
ary, 1920. 

Seaman,  W.  G.,  "Gary's  Week-Day  Community  School 
for  Religious  Education,"  Religious  Education, 
October,  1918. 

Squires,  W.  A.,  "The  Week-Day  Church  School," 
Presbyterian  Board  of  Publications,  1921. 

Belts,  G.  H.,  "What  Can  Religious  Education  Do  for 
the  Church,"  Religious  Education,  June,  1920. 


105 


RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION  POSTERS 

The  following  Posters  and  others  on  Religious  Education 

can  be  obtained  in  size  suitable  for  wall  use 

from  the  publishers  of  this  volume. 

Copyright,  192 1,  by  Arthur  F.  Stevens. 


107 


What  Can  Religious  Education 
Do  For  the  Ciiurch? 


T^AKE  the  Church  back  to  the  method 
^    used  by  Jesus  and  by  the  early  Chris- 
tian Church. 

Double  the  Church's  membership  within 
the  next  decade. 

Through  conservation  reduce  the  need  for 
reclamation  and  multiply  a  hundred  fold 
the  effective  outcome  of  funds  and  effort 
devoted  to  church  work. 

Vitalize  and  give  dynamic  force  to  the 
spiritual  life  of  the  Church  by  building 
religion  firmly  into  the  every-day  char- 
acter and  experience  of  its  people. 

Provide  for  the  Church  an  intelligent  and 
loyal  membership  instructed  in  the  Bible 
and  trained  in  Christian  living. 


MAKE  IT  POSSIBLE  FOR  THE  CHURCH  TO  TAKE 

THE  OFFENSIVE  FOR  THE  SPIRITUAL 

REGENERATION  OF  THE  WORLD 


What   Shall    the    Church 
Do  to  Be  Saved? 


O 


BEY  the  great  spiritual  and   biological 
law  that  one  who  would  save  his  life 
must  be  ready  to  lose  it  in  service. 


Build  its  program  around  childhood. 
Change  the  center  of  emphasis  from  the 
adult  to  youth,  claiming  life  at  its  source 
rather  than  reclaiming  it  at  its  end. 

Awaken  to  the  fact  already  discovered  by 
the  state — that  education  is  the  chief  in- 
strument by  which  it  can  fulfill  its  task 
and  achieve  its  destiny.  Build  into  the 
structure  of  young  life  the  spiritual  values 
necessary  for  its  fulfillment. 

Turn  into  its  own  channels  the  great  spirit- 
ual stream  of  youthful  energy  and  enthu- 
siasm now  going  to  waste  in  barren 
places  for  lack  of  religious  education  of 
childhood. 


SAVE  CHILDHOOD  AND  YOUTH  THROUGH 
RELIGIOUS  NURTURE  AND  EDUCATION 


Religious  Education  The  Birth- 
Right  of  the  Child 

The  best  and  most  natural  way  for  the  child 
to  enter  into  his  spiritual  heritage  is  to 
grow  into  it  gradually  from  the  beginning. 

Only  those  ideals  which  have  been  built  into 
the  structure  of  character  from  childhood 
later  become  a  dynamic  and  dependable 
factor  in  the  life. 

New  religious  concepts  offered  a  mature 
and  hardened  life  are  like  fresh  shoots 
grafted  on  old  trees. 

Spiritual  ideals,  loyalties,  devotions  and  the 
consciousness  of  God  in  the  life  cannot 
come  in  a  day.  They  are  the  products 
of  wise,  persistent  training  in  religion 
through  the  plastic  years. 

No  reclaimed  life  can  ever  be  what  would 
have  been  possible  without  the  necessity 
for  reclamation.  It  is  always  too  late  to 
be  what  we  might  have  been. 

Religion  can  and  must  be  taught.  In  his 
religious  development  the  child  uses  the 
same  powers  of  mind  and  heart  that  are 
employed  in  other  avenues  of  experience. 

The  new  program  of  religious  education 
does  not  substitute  mere  training  for  the 
Divine  influence  working  on  the  life.  It 
offers  a  way  to  prevent  the  soul  of  the 
child  from  ever  breaking  connections 
with  the  Divine. 


Week-Day  Religious  Education 


THE  NEED: 

P^VERY  American  child  has  an  inalienable  right 
^-^  to  a  knowledge  of  the  Bible  and  to  training  in 
the  Christian  religion. 

The  Public  School  can  not  teach  religion;  the  Home 
increasingly  does  not. 

The  Sunday  School  is  doing  a  remarkable  work, 
but  with  its  necessary  limitations  it  can  never  fully 
meet  the  need. 

We  are  in  danger  of  becoming  a  nation  of  religious 

illiterates : 

Children  6-12  years  in  U.  S.,  20,500,000 

Children  6-12  years  in  Sunday  School,  5,350,000 

Two  thirds  of  all  American  children  receive  no  sig- 
nificant religious  instruction. 

Religion  is  as  important  and  as  much  a  part  of  life 
equipment  as  geography  or  arithmetic.  Religion 
can  be  taught ;  it  should  have  its  share  in  any  pro- 
gram of  education. 

Week-day  religious  education  will  help  the  Church 
meet  this  obligation.  It  is  helping  meet  it  now 
for  thousands  of  children  in  many  American  com- 
munities. 


LET  THE  CHURCH  PUT  THE  CHILD  AT  THE 
CENTER  OF  ITS  PROGRAM 


Week-Day  Religious   Education 


THE  PLAN: 

'T^HE  churches  of  each  community  should  form  a 
^  federation  for  the  promotion  of  week-day  reli- 
gious instruction  as  a  joint  enterprise.  Where  this  is 
impossible  a  single  denomination  should  conduct  the 
school. 

The  Week-Day  Church  School  year  should  run 
parallel  with  public  school  year. 

About  two  class  periods  a  week  should  be  given  to 
religious  instruction. 

Classes  are  held  in  churches,  or  in  public  school  or 
other  suitable  buildings  as  the  community  desires. 

Time  from  school  program  is  granted  (on  request  of 
parent)  for  work  in  religion  by  public  school  authori- 
ties, or  classes  are  held  before  or  after  school  or  on 
Saturdays. 

Religious  instruction  is  not  to  be  a  part  of  the  public 
school  system ;  teachers  are  selected,  funds  provided 
and  curriculum  determined  by  the  churches. 

Each  church  will  maintain  and  strengthen  its  own 
Sunday  School,  which  will  be  supplemented  by  the 
joint  week-day  instruction. 

WORK  IN  THE  CHURCH  SCHOOL  BROUGHT  TO  AS 
HIGH  A  STANDARD  AS  IN  THE  PUBLIC  SCHOOL 


Week-Day  Religious  Education 

THE  CURRICULUM: 

GRADED  Volumes  for  every  age  from  Begimiers  on  through 
the  High  School  and  into  the  College. 

A  series  of  text  books  as  carefully  planned,  as  well  adapted, 
printed,  illustrated  and  bound  as  the  texts  used  in  the  public 
schools. 

Every  lesson  embodies  the  scientific  principles  of  modem 
education,  but  without  sacrificing  religious  warmth  or  spiritual 
dynamic. 

On  the  one  hand  the  texts  supplement  the  work  of  the  Sunday 
School;  on  the  other  they  correlate  in  grading  and  content  with 
the  work  of  the  public  schools. 

The  materials  are  carefully  tested  and  proved  in  actual  class 
room  use  under  skilled  teaching  and  supervision. 

The  Bible  supplies  the  core  of  subject  matter,  but  nature, 
literature,  and  life  are  freely  drawn  upon. 

Large  place  is  given  to  suitable  forms  of  expression  work 
planned  to  make  the  lessons  carry  over  into  conduct,  habits 
and  character. 

Both  in  their  content  and  their  pedagogical  plan  the  texts  are 
such  as  will  make  the  teaching  of  religion  a  joy  and  its  study 
a  delight. 

The  volumes  are  interdenominational  in  the  sense  that  they 
supply  the  great  fundamentals  of  religious  truth  and  basic  virtues 
whose  need  and  application  are  common  to  all  denominations 
without  reference  to  church  or  creed. 

WHAT  WE  WOULD  HAVE  IN  THE  LIFE  OF  THE  CHURCH 
WE  MUST  FIRST  PUT  IN  ITS  SCHOOLS 


The  Church  Vacation 
Day  School 


TTTHY  waste  one  fourth  of  the  child's  precious  educa- 
VV    tion  time? 
The  program  of  the  Public  School  leaves  30,000,000  chil- 
dren idle  for  three  months  each  summer. 

Here  is  the  Church's  great  opportunity.  Through  the 
Vacation  Day  School  the  Church  can  recruit  its  own  ranks 
and  Christianize  the  nation. 

The  long  summer  vacation  is  not  only  a  period  of  wasted 
opportunity  and  retrogression  but  of  grave  moral  danger 
to  thousands  of  children.  Save  the  danger  by  means  of 
the  Church  Vacation  School. 

Let  the  Church  bring  together  in  the  Vacation  Day  School 
the  three  anomalous  factors:  idle  children,  idle  church 
buildings,  and  devoted  but  idle  teachers. 

Parents  approve  Vacation  Schools,  the  children  are  en- 
thusiastic over  them,  ministers  count  them  one  of  the  best 
agencies  for  the  rehgious  training  of  the  yoimg. 

More  than  two  thousand  chiu-ches  and  communities  have 
fotmd  in  the  long  summer  months  an  opportunity  for 
supplementing  the  child's  religious  instruction  and  making 
fruitful  use  of  his  leisure  time. 

The  busiest  and  most  fruitful  months  should  be  the  sum- 
mer months  for  most  churches.  When  the  Public  School 
closes  its  doors  let  the  doors  of  the  Church  be  open  to 
every  child. 


MORE  TIME  IS  NEEDED  FOR  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION. 

THAT  TIME  IS  AVAILABLE  IN  THE  SUMMER 

VACATION.    WILL  THE  CHURCH  USE  IT? 


The  Church  Vacation 
School  Should 


— minister  to  the  whole  child:  physical, 
mental,  social  and  moral:  hence, 

— provide  instruction  in  the  Bible. 

— teach  religion  through  nature,  literature 
and  life. 

— make  familiar  the  devotional  music  and 
art  of  the  Church. 

— broaden  the  social  nature  and  quicken 
and  enrich  the  sympathies  by  teaching 
the  great  missionary  adventures  of  the 
Church. 

— give  lessons  in  Christian  citizenship. 

— build  for  physical  well  being,  right 
habits,  health  and  happiness. 

— supply  abimdant  recreation  and  give 
training  in  suitable  games  and  play. 

fford  opportunity  for  expression 
through  the  hand,  social  conduct  and 
in  such  other  ways  as  will  lead  to 
useful  habits. 


HELP  THE  CHURCH  FULFILL  ITS 
OBLIGATION  TO  CHILDHOOD 


The  Community  Training  School 

Helps  to  Reunite  Religion  and  Education 


Solves  the  problem  of  supply  teachers 

Strengthens  the  morale  of  the  teaching 
corps 

Supplements  the  teacher-training  pro- 
grams of  the  local  churches 

Provides  specialized  courses  of  training 

Creates  reverence  for  the  Word  of  God, 
for  the  child,  and  for  the  Church 
School 

Exalts  the  teaching  ministry  of  the  church 

Provides  teachers  with  objectives,  mo- 
tives, skill 

Answers  the  questions— who  shall  teach, 
how  to  teach,  and  what  to  teach 


"STUDY  TO  SHOW  THYSELF  APPROVED  OF  GOD, 
A  WORKMAN  THAT  NEEDETH  NOT  TO  BE 
ASHAMED,  RIGHTLY  DIVIDING 
THE  WORD  OF  TRUTH" 

U  TIMOTHY.  2:15 


The  Community  Training  School 


A  poor  teacher  can  spoil  a  good  lesson 

Are  the  pupils  being  taught  or  are  they  be- 
ing merely  sprayed  with  ideas? 

Does  the  teacher  of  religion  need  less  train- 
ing than  the  teacher  of  arithmetic? 

In  teaching  religion,  religious  motives  are 
not  a  substitute  for  technical  insight. 
Both  are  needed. 

It  is  not  so  much— do  you  know  how  to 
teach  the  lesson?  as,  do  you  know  how  to 
teach  the  boy? 

No  person  has  a  moral  right  to  undertake 
to  teach  if  ignorant  of  the  subject  matter 
or  unappreciative  of  its  true  worth. 

Which  is  worse— an  irreligious  teacher  of 
science  or  an  unscientific  teacher  of 
religion? 

The  Community  Training  School  gets  rid 
of  both. 


A  NIGHT  SCHOOL  FOR  THE  TRAINING  OF  PRESENT 
AND  PROSPECTIVE  TEACHERS,  PARENTS,  LEADERS. 


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